Our friends at the Athanasius Kircher Society, who introduced us to the twisted 17th century cat piano, point us to another of Kircher‘s strange inventions. This time, it’s a hall of mirrors that would almost certainly drive our feline friends insane if it was ever to be built. (And as a devoted cat companion, I would never ever encourage such a thing.) From a text by Gaspar Schott:
“You will exhibit the most delightful trick if you impose one of these appearances on a live cat, as Fr. Kircher has done. While the cat sees himself to be surrounded by an innumerable multitude of catoptric cats, some of them standing close to him and others spread very far away from him, it can hardly be said how many capers will be exhibited in that theatre, while he sometimes tries to follow the other cats, sometimes to entice them with his tail, sometimes attempts a kiss, and indeed tries to break through the obstacles in every way with his claws so that he can be united with the other cats, until finally, with various noises, and miserable whines he declares his various affectations of indignation, rage, jealousy, love and desire. Similar spectacles can be exhibited with other animals.”
