![]() ![]() In the 16th century, Gerolamo Cardano (French: Jérôme Cardan), a Milanese doctor, mathematician and man of culture, wrote in his encyclopedia, “I have seen many other wooden figures set in motion by several strings alternately tensed and relaxed, which is nothing wonderful. This manipulation technique is not dissimilar to that found in a or “jigdoll” or “ marionnette à la planchette” (puppet on a plank), the difference being that the latter is usually operated on the ground. Two manipulators, standing on either side of a rectangular table, pull on two horizontal strings that intersect between two puppets (two armoured soldiers) which are thus animated. The oldest known representation of a tabletop puppet is from a manuscript by (French: Herrade de Landsberg, c.1170), entitled Hortus deliciarum. The priest would place this “puppet” in front of him and punctuate his predication with this piece of “magic” that was made possible by strings relaying the eyes to a small lever placed in the puppet’s back. ![]() The Musée du Moyen Âge de Cluny (Cluny Middle Ages Museum) in Paris has in its collection a sculpture of a crucified thief that comes from the Auvergne and dates back to the 16th century the figure is about 50 centimetres high and is furnished with an interior mechanism that enables the figure to roll its eyes. A Czech engraving shows a scene where a farmer receives communion from the hand of a priest who, at the same time, is manipulating a puppet on a table with the other hand. Some wood engravings from the Middle Ages show puppets manipulated on a table. The following two essays are a discussion of various techniques of, , and other puppet types where the performing space is at the level of a table, and where a puppet is operated from behind (French: “ equiplane”), usually but not always by a visible operator. “Equiplane” or Same Level Puppet Manipulation (Historical Precedents)
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