Have you ever wanted to wash your hands in melted lead? Or maybe, you have always wanted to make an egg walk. Meet Luca Pacioli ~~ the Renaissance's own David Copperfield!
Luca Pacioli, a native of Tuscany, was a good friend and sometime artistic collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci.
He is also the author of one of the oldest magic books - De viribus quantitatis (On The Powers Of Numbers). And for the past 500 years, this unpublished book has been hidden away in the archives of the University of Bologna.
"It was written in Italian by Pacioli [a Franciscan monk] between 1496 and 1508 and contains the first ever reference to card tricks as well as guidance on how to juggle, eat fire and make coins dance. It is also the first work to note that Da Vinci was left-handed."
Reporter Lucy McDonald of the Guardian has the full details of this magical story from her 2007 article.
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