In his Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration (1887) [I.127], Henry Havard, begins with an entry he found in the 1483 Inventory of queen Charlotte of Savoie, wife of Louis XI. Like most personal inventories, this was taken upon her death.
« Deux mirouers ardens, ung grant et ung petit, l’un bordé d’argent, estimés IIII escuz ». | "Two mirrors ardent, a grand and a small one, one framed in silver, estimated IIII ecus". |
The clerk who made the entry understood “mirrors ardent” to come in different sizes.
From the 1514 inventory of Louise Borgia, the very much alive, nearly 14 year old Duchess of Valentinois, we learn that their finish and accessories can be lavish.
« Ung estuy de la sourte dessus dicte, ouquel a esté trouvé un miroir ardant, un pigne d’yvère, ung de bois et ung espinglier party de velloux cramoisy et de satin broché verd, la serrure doré. » | “A casing of the above mentioned sort, in which was found a mirror ardent, was a pinecone of ivory, one of wood and one with crimson velvet catch and green satin brocade parts, the lock gold plated.” |
This particular inventory would have to have been done in preparation — Charlotte of Albret, her mother and regent having died in March of that year — for assuming the full powers and responsibilities as duchess.
In each of these instances, the mirrors are hand held and small enough to be kept in a ladies dressing table. By the 17th century, though, a mirror ardent of 8 inches diameter is described as “small”. It is said to enlarge images because it is not a lense but a mirror thus enlarged the images it captured at close range.
Ce miroir, qui était de métal, avait été construit par M. de la Garouste, gentilhomme habitant la ville de Saint-Céré, dans la vicomté de Turenne. Enfin, parmi les cadeaux remis aux ambassadeurs de Siam, nous remarquons : « Plusieurs miroirs ardens d'une construction nouvelle et qui, bien qu’ils n’ayent qu’un pied de diamètre, font autant d’effet et ont autant d’activité que tous ceux qu’on a veus jusqu’à présent. » ( Mercure d’avril 1687.) A partir de ce moment, le miroir ardent, instrument de physique, cesse d’être confondu avec le miroir concave, appartenant au mobilier, objet de curiosité ou de toilette. | This mirror, which was of metal, had been constructed by M. de la Garouste, a gentleman living in the town of Saint-Céré, in the Viscounty of Turenne. Finally, among the gifts given to the ambassadors of Siam, we note: "Several ardent mirrors of new construction, which, although they are only a foot in diameter, have as much effect and have as much activity as any we have seen so far. » (Mercury of April 1687.) From this moment, the burning mirror, instrument of physics, ceases to be confused with the concave mirror, belonging to the furniture, object of curiosity or toilet. |
By now, a concave hand mirror is no longer generally referred to as a miroir ardant. Only a mirror larger enough to focus light rays to the point of starting a fire in materials at the focal point merits the name. These are used as toys and as scientific instruments.
Havard headed these examples with a general definition of a miroir ardent with a curious detail.
Ardent (miroir). — On a nommé ainsi, au Moyen Age et jusqu’au xviie siècle, « un miroir concave, sphérique ou parabolique, qui ramasse tous les rayons de soleil en un point, qu’on appelle foyer, où la chaleur devient si grande qu’elle brusle ». S’il faut en croire Rabelais (Pantagruel, liv. II, ch. xvi), ces miroirs servaient aux mauvais plaisants à faire « enraiger aulcunes fois les hommes et les femmes » et à leur faire « perdre contenance à l’ecclise ». | From the Middle Ages until the seventeenth century, this was was the name for "a concave, spherical or parabolic mirror, which collects all the rays of the sun at a point, called the focus, where the heat becomes so great that it burns”. If Rabelais is to be believed (Pantagruel, book II, ch. xvi), these mirrors were used by practical jokers to “enrage men and women sometimes” and to make them “lose their temper in Church”. |
I provide the french original of the cited passage, from Francois Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel, side-by-side with the translation by Thomas Urquhart.
En l'autre, un fusil garni d'amorce, d'allumettes, de pierre à feu et tout autre appareil à ce requis. En l'autre, deux ou trois miroirs ardents dont il faisait enrager aucunes fois les hommes et les femmes et leur faisait perdre contenance à l'église, car il disait qu'il n'y avait qu'un antistrophe entre femme folle à la messe et femme molle à la fesse. | In another [pocket], he had a squib furnished with tinder, matches, stones to strike fire, and all other tackling necessary for it: in another, two or three burning glasses, wherewith he made both men and women sometimes mad [angry], and in the Church put them quite out of countenance; for he said that there was but an Antistrophe, or little more difference then of a literal inversion between a woman, folle a la messe, and molle a la fêsse; that is, foolish at the Mass, and of a pliant buttock. |
What exactly Urquhart meant by the translation “of a pliant buttock” we will leave the reader to ponder. What I will supply is a bit of scepticism. It is difficult to believe that applying several mirrors small enough to fit inside one's cloak to a small flame would have much heating effect at any distance.
But practice might have taught the desired effect. Ne'er-do-well's can be surisingly industrious in designing their practical jokes.
Also from the Library of Babel:
The Founding of the Order of Fools: Cleves, 1381. November 16, 2022. “Further, will we Fools yearly meet, and hold a conventicle and Court,...”
- Pierce Butler, Fanny Kemble, et al. July 22, 2020. ‘“An attempt of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to make a way around the original Fugitive Slave Law, of 1793, by finding a private agent guilty of kidnapping for having remanded a slave from Pennsylvania to Maryland was forcefully overturned by the U. S. Supreme Court in Prigg v. United States (1842).”’
- The Best Translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. July, 14, 2019. “For the next month, then, I put aside a few hours each night. Not only with Singleton and Merwin. In the glorious Age of the Internet, the first step could only be a search for what books relating to the subject were available on Google Book Search and the Internet Archive.”
- A Memoriam for W. S. Merwin. April 17, 2019. “It took about three days, as I recall, for me to surrender to the fact that W. S. Merwin was the finest English language poet of his time. I wished I’d been prepared to read him years ago.”
- Be sure to check out the Browser's Guide to the Library of Babel.
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