Funny Thought, Concerning a New Kind of Representations, by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

In this 1675 paper, Leibniz proposes the establishment of a fund to support the creation of public representations showcasing new inventions and curiosities. Leibniz suggests that a group of influential individuals, with the ability to fund such an endeavor, could hire painters, sculptors, mathematicians, engineers, and others to create a theater of all imaginable things, including magic lanterns, flights, optical marvels, representations of the sky and stars, comets, globes, fireworks, rare animals, artificial horse races, and more. Leibniz argues that such an endeavor would promote the growth of science and provide entertainment and education for the public. He suggests that the endeavor could also serve as a bureau for inventors to showcase their inventions and profit from them. Finally, Leibniz proposes the inclusion of a purchasing office, a poster registry, and other useful amenities, such as a Marionettes du Marmis with the Pygmies and shadows on a theater stage.

The Representation that took place in Paris in September 1675 on the river Seine, of a Machine that serves to walk on water¹, gave rise to the following thought, which, however funny it may seem, would be consequential if it were executed.

Let us suppose that some people of consideration, interested in beautiful curiosities, and especially in machines, agree together to have public representations made.

For this purpose, they would need a fund, in order to make necessary expenses; which would not be difficult, if at least some of these people were in a position to contribute. For example, the Marquis de Sourdiac, Mons. Baptiste, Mons. Le Brun², or perhaps some great lord, like Mons. de la Feuillade³, Mons. de Roannez⁴; or even if you want, Mons. de Meclenbourg, Mons. de Mazarini⁵, and a few others. It would be even better if one could do without the great lords, and even without powerful people in court, and it would be good to have private individuals capable of supporting the necessary expenses. For a powerful lord, if he saw the success of the affair, would become the sole master of it. If things went well, protectors could always be found at court.

In addition to the people who are capable of bearing the costs, there would also need to be those who could always give new inventions. But as the large number gives rise to disorders; I believe that it would be best if there were only two or three associates, masters of the privilege, and that the others were at their service on a contract basis, or with certain conditions, or with regard to certain representations or for a certain period of time, or as long as it pleased the principals, or until they had received a certain amount of money that they could have provided.

The people who would be hired would be painters, sculptors, carpenters, clockmakers, and other similar people. One can also add mathematicians, engineers, architects, jugglers, charlatans, musicians, poets, booksellers, typographers, engravers, and others, little by little and over time.

The representations would be, for example, magic lanterns (we could start with that), flights, counterfeit meteors, all kinds of optical marvels; a representation of the sky and stars; comets; Globes like Gottorp or Jena; fireworks, fountains, strange-shaped ships; mandrakes and other rare plants. Extraordinary and rare animals. Royal Circle. Animal figures. Royal Machine of artificial horse races. Prizes for shooting. Representations of war actions. Fortifications made, raised, of wood, on the theater, charity, cruelty, etc. all in imitation of the art maker that I have seen, a master of fortification would explain the use of all counterfeit warfare. Infantry exercise by Martinet. Cavalry exercise. Naval fog [?] on a canal. Extraordinary concerts. Rare musical instruments. Speaking trumpets. Fake chandeliers and gems. The representation could always be mixed with some history or comedy. Theater of nature and art. Lute playing. Swimming. Extraordinary rope dancer. Perilous jump. Showing that a child lifts a heavy weight with a thread. Anatomical theater. Garden of simples, Laboratory will follow. For, in addition to public representations, there will be private ones such as small number machines and other paintings, medals, library. New experiments with water, air, vacuum, for large representations, Mons. Guericke’s machine of 24 horses, etc. would also be used, for small ones, a strong globe. A quantity of things from Mons. Dalencé⁶; item for the magnet. Mons. Denis⁷, or Mons. — would explain⁸ them. Even certain rarities, such as caux pixtriques, would be distributed there. The transfusion and infusion operation would be performed there⁹. Item for leave, spectators would be given the time, whether it will rain or not tomorrow; by means of a little man in Father Kircher’s Cabinet¹⁰. The man who eats fire etc. would be brought from England if he is still alive. The moon would be seen in the evening through a telescope as well as other stars. A water drinker would be found¹¹. The test of machines that would shoot accurately at a given point would be done. Representations of muscles, nerves, bones, item machine representing the human body. Insects of Mons. Schwammerdam¹², Goedartis…¹³ Myrmeleon. Shop of Mepitus Galinée and Billets. Arts of Mons. Thevenot¹⁴. Pleasant disputes and conversations. Showing dark rooms. Paintings that can only be seen from a certain angle, and from another angle they look completely different. By a certain Mons. on the island, v. d. — farms like at Versailles bordering a canal. Public celebrations…¹⁵ paintings on oiled paper and lamps inside. One could have figures that would move and be illuminated from inside to see what would be on the paper. For magic lamps, not only simple things painted on transparent material would be used, but also disassembled to represent well extraordinary and grotesque movements that men knew how to do¹⁶. Ballets of horses. Ring and Turkish head races. Arts machines, such as the one I saw in Germany. The power of the burning mirror of the Gilgeois de Callinius fire. Chess game, ... ¹⁷ of men on a stage. As in Hayschaffle. Aufzüge in the German style. One could learn and represent other kinds of games on a large scale. Play an entire comedy of amusing games from all kinds of countries. People would imitate them at home. In the house there would be a tennis court and others, and for this perhaps a new kind of useful games would be invented. In the end, Exercise Academies and colleges for youth could be established there, perhaps one could be added to the 4 Notions College. Comedies of fashion, disputes from each country. An Indian comedy, a Turkish one, a Persian one, etc. Comedies of trades, one for each trade, which would represent their skills, jokes, tricks, masterpieces, ridiculous particular laws and customs. Among other Italian buffoons, French buffoons who would play buffooneries would be sought sometimes. Flying fire-breathing dragons, etc. could be made of oiled, illuminated paper. Windmills, boats that would go against the wind. The sail chariot of Holland or rather China. Instruments that would play themselves. Stones, etc. Hauz machine of a counterfeit cavalry and infantry, which would fight¹⁸. The experience of breaking a glass by screaming. Petter should come. Inventions of Mr. Weigel¹⁹. Showing the equality of pendulum beats. Globe of Mr. Guericke²⁰. Past hunting tricks. Card tricks. These things could be included in comedies, for example, by playing a street performer. In the end, the opera could be added to all of this; and many other things. Postures in comedies in the Italian and German styles would be…²¹ Drawing the curtain, it wouldn’t be bad, during the interval. Something could be shown in the darkness. And magic lanterns could be suitable for this. These transparent marionettes could be represented through words or songs. Representations of the antiquities of Rome and other famous people could be made, as well as countless other things. The usefulness of this endeavor would be greater than one could imagine, both in public and in private. In public, it would open people’s eyes, inspire inventions, provide beautiful views, and teach the world an infinite number of useful or ingenious novelties. Anyone who comes up with a new invention or ingenious design could come here and find a way to showcase their invention and profit from it; it would be a general address bureau for all inventors. Soon there would be a theater of all imaginable things: a menagerie, simple machines, observatory, anatomical theater, cabinet of rarities. All the curious would flock there. This would be the means of promoting things. Academies, colleges, tennis courts, and others, concerts, galleries of paintings, conversations, and conferences would all be included. The profit for individuals would be great, apparently. Optical curiosities would cost very little and would make up a large part of these inventions. All respectable people would want to have seen these curiosities so they could speak of them. Even ladies of quality would want to be taken there, more than once. People would always be encouraged to push things further, and those who undertook it should ensure secrecy in other great cities or principal courts²², such as Rome, Venice, Vienna, Amsterdam, Hamburg, through people they trust with privileges from kings and republics. This would also serve to establish a meeting of the Academy of Sciences everywhere, which would sustain itself and produce beautiful things. Perhaps curious princes and famous individuals would contribute for the public satisfaction and the growth of sciences. In the end, everyone would be alarmed and awakened, and the endeavor could have outcomes as beautiful and as important as one could imagine, which perhaps will be admired by future generations.

[Leibniz concludes with the following addition:] Finally, a purchasing office should be added; A poster registry and a thousand other useful things. Join the Marionettes du Marmis with the Pygmies. Shadows could also be added, either on a theater stage on the side of the spectators where there is light and small moving wooden figures that will cast their shadow against a transparent paper behind which there will also be light; this will make the shadows projected on the paper in a very striking and large way. But so that the figures of the shadows do not all appear on the same plane, perspective could remedy this through the diminishing size of the shadows. They will come from the edge towards the middle, and it will appear as if they are coming forward from the background. They will increase in size by means of their distance from the light; this will be very easy and simple; there will be immediate wonderful transformations, perilous jumps, flights, and Circle Magirenne, who transforms children who appear. After that, everything would suddenly be darkened, and the same marvel would serve; all light would be suppressed except for this only one, which is near the small movable wooden figures. This remaining light, with the help of a Magic Lantern, would throw amazingly beautiful and moving figures against the wall, which would follow the same laws of perspective. This would be accompanied by singing behind the theater. The small figures would be moved from below or by their weight so that what serves to move them does not appear. Singing and music would accompany everything.

[Note. The above draft contains so much of interest to the history of science that it was justified to include it here, although its main content belongs to the field of cultural history. Not a few of Leibniz’s proposals, which he calls a Drole, have long since been realized. Think of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham and the world and other exhibitions, but also of many of our zoological gardens, variety theaters, colorful boards, and last but not least, the Wertheim department store in Berlin. The part of the program devoted more to the dissemination of science has been adopted by Urania in Berlin. Thus, here too, Leibniz’s ideas, although originating from them, have far outpaced those of his time. Long after his death, partly only in our time, they have been realized. But even more credit is due to him for the great impulse that runs through them, always keeping an eye on the common good and always striving to bring together the otherwise fragmented individual forces into a whole, as part of which they can only fully unfold their useful effect. The same basic idea also led the inventor of infinitesimal calculus to work everywhere so that the ruling lords of his time founded academies of sciences, making him the founder of the Berlin Academy. However varied his goals for such an academy, as shown by an excerpt from one of his letters to Prince Eugene, the conqueror of the Turks. According to this, its activity should extend to historical works and investigations of diplomas and manuscripts, a library for the latest developments in literature, a coin and antiquities cabinet, a theater of nature and art, a chemical laboratory, an observatory, a model and machine magazine, a botanical garden, a mineral and stone cabinet, schools for anatomy and surgery, an annual physical-medical history of the seasons and statistics of the interior, travels for investigations in the field of art, nature, and literature, salaries for the personnel used for this purpose, encouragement of those who dedicated themselves to research and invention, prizes and rewards for discoverers.]

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1. Perhaps in the manner depicted by Schwenter in Mathematische Erquiekstunden 1686, after Leurechon on p.↩

2. Perhaps the well-known first painter of Louis XIV, who produced the ceiling decorations at the Palace of Versailles. He lived from 1629 to 1690.↩

3. François d’Aubasson, Duke of Feuillade. Became Marshal of France in 1675. Born around 1625, died in 1691.↩

4. Artus Gouffier, Duke of Roanez. Died in 1696.↩

5. Arnoud Charles, Marquis de la Porte, Marquis de la Milleraye. Through his marriage to Hortense Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, he also became Duke of Mazarin. Around 1675 he was governor of Alsace.↩

6. Joachim d’Alencé (Dalencé) was born in Paris and, after Hautefeuille, worked as a secretary to the king, specializing in physics and astronomy. He died in 1707. He was one of the scholars of the time who corresponded eagerly with others, thus replacing today’s journals. In 1687 he published a work: Traité de l’aimant, and in 1688 a second: Traittez des baromètres, thermomètres, et notiomètres.↩

7. Denis Papin, who had been a secretary to Huygens since about 1671, where he met Leibniz, who had been in Paris with interruptions from 1672 to 1676. Papin then conducted experiments with the air pump for Huygens, which he published in 1674 under the title: Experiences du vuide.↩

8. [Here Leibniz has written in the margin:] “Rather different rooms, like shops in a single house, whose occupants would display their rarities. New rue de la Rvignoy.”↩

9. [Addition by Leibniz at this point:] “There could be several houses in different parts of the city, each representing different things. The privilege could obligate everyone who wanted to represent to do so in the Academy of representations. One could eventually receive and put into use the privilege of the general address bureau, which would be of great importance if it had been pushed as it should have been. Often one could incur no expense by merely giving others the freedom to represent in the Academy house for a certain amount of money. And thus one would profit from it, it would always be at the Academy, and no expense would be incurred.

   Perhaps by taking charge of the establishment of the College of Four Nations, one could add to it; there would be white there, lotteries would be founded, and a kind of (unreadable, perhaps givoco). A large number of small curiosities could be sold there.”↩

10. A weather house, such as are still popular today.↩

11. [On a quarto sheet, Leibniz notes about this:] “What could the artifice of the water drinker consist of? Since it is certain that the liquids they produce not only have the color, but also the smell and natural taste, it is not credible that they change the water into such liquids. Therefore, they must have swallowed them beforehand. The difficulty is how he could have prevented them from mixing in his stomach.” Leibniz believes that he has thin-walled tubes with him that reach down to his stomach, whose upper ends are in his mouth, and which he could open through his tongue with a valve.↩

12. Swammerdam, the famous author of Biblia naturae. Lived in Amsterdam from 1637-1680.↩

13. Torn down, perhaps Leeuwenhoek, who was famous for his microscopic investigations. Lived in Delft from 1632 to 1723.↩

14. Thevenot (1620-1692), the inventor of the tube level, author of the Relations de divers voyages curieux.↩

15. Torn down, perhaps like.↩

16. [Here Leibniz added on the margin:] “I almost forgot that one could establish here an Academy of games or more generally Academy of pleasures. But the first name pleases me more, because it is to the taste of the world. One would play cards, dice. There would be a room for Landsquenes, a room for thirty and forty. A room for Beclan, a room for Hombre, etc. A room for chess or checkers. We would do as at Fredoc’s. We would distribute marks to those who wanted to play in there; and thus they would not play with money but with marks, which makes people play more easily. Those who wanted to dine there would only give one mark (louis d’or) per head, and would be very well treated. It would be at the same time an honest cabinet as at Blyeme’s. One would show curiosities in there, one could not enter without a mark, one would pay the marks at the office. There would be a skill or subtlety to make the marks counterfeitable; their number would have to relate to some other number [a word torn down]. There would be several houses or Academies of this nature throughout the city. These houses or rooms would be built in such a way that the master of the house could hear and see everything that is said and done without being noticed through the use of mirrors and pipes, which would be a very important thing for the state and a kind of political confessional [the rest torn down].”↩

17. Torn down, was probably called presentation.↩

18. [Addition by Leibniz:] Enchanted palace, enchanted island. Theater [torn down, perhaps enchanted] made of oiled paper inside a dark place.↩

19. Erhard Weigel (1625-1699), professor in Jena since 1653, author of a series of works whose titles aroused curiosity, such as Himmelspiegel (1661), Zeitspiegel (1664), Erdspiegel (1665), Vorstellung der Kunst und des Handwerwerks (1672), Neu erfundener Reiserat (1672), Pendulum ex tetracty deductum (1674), Wirkliche Probe der Feldkutsche (1674), etc.↩

20. [Here Leibniz added:] it would be necessary to prevent swearing or blasphemy against God at the Academy because that is the pretext for which Academies have been suspected. A pretext would be found by making it fashionable to be a good player, admired for playing without losing one’s temper. Those who lose their temper would give something, not to the cards or the house, as this would appear less interested in the game, because it would be in the interest of those who play to observe the law. But if a group of players were noticed who were all carried away, which is rare, who would dispense with this law for each other, they would be refused the door to open it [?] and simply expelled. It would be necessary to use not the pretext of repelling [?] the common people, but of fashion and quality art. NB If no group were refused who wanted to play in the public room; because it would be noticed if a certain group of players were seeking a room, when [?] it would be granted to them; but if they judged there and dispensed with the law, they would be refused a private room which [is] if cheating were to be allowed in the game. One could distinguish according to the wishes of the persons. If cheating is allowed by their agreement, a penalty would be imposed on anyone who is caught cheating by giving wrong cards. If there were no penalty specified, it would be deemed permitted. But if some players want to be banned absolutely, they could be banned from company or a large sum of money without penalty. In this way, cheating would be allowed most of the time, which would make people seek the world in a thousand ways. Nevertheless, I believe that this cheating of bringing a foreign card should be absolutely prohibited, just as using foreign dice should be. It is better to ban cheating, unless the players themselves want to allow it or put only a sum of money. The game master could have brought in players to be on his side. But this could also undermine his reputation [one could also establish] a kind of lottery, with a punishable gain (which can be calculated), for the lottery master, etc.

    This house would become, over time, a palace, and it would even contain or in its enclosure or at the bottom of shops of all imaginable things.

    The game would be the most beautiful pretext in the world to start a useful thing for the public than this one. For it would be necessary to deceive people, take advantage of their weakness and deceive them to cure them. Is there anything more just than making extravagance serve the establishment of wisdom? It is truly useful to provide a person with an aid. There could be rooms for masks. [The rest is torn.]↩

21. Probably “d’interest”.↩

22. [Here Leibniz added the following:] Having a foundation, there would be a kind of bank for life annuities and others, but not for piety; companies for new manufactures.↩