Media Archeology in Spain

Abstract

Based on a carefully selected list of references in Spanish, the following text presents a brief history of the magic lantern in Spain, from its invention to the beginning of its decadence as a social medium of communication. The magic lantern emerged in the seventeenth century, with the application of a series of physical principles that allowed the first attempts and experiences of image projection, such as the one described by Juana Inés de la Cruz in Sueño, a silva strophe published in Seville in 1692. As a device, the magic lantern finally was consolidated during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, mainly due to the popular sessions of phantasmagorias, which, in Spain, were run by projectionists such as Juan González Mantilla, or Robertson himself. After the magic lantern became institutionalized and commercialized throughout the whole Iberian Peninsula—the same as in the rest of Europe—its decline took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, when it had to compete with the cinematograph.