page_title: Joseph Pinetti
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Pinetti / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: The magician Joseph Pinetti.
context_page_description: Giovanni Giuseppe Pinetti, was known in France as Chevalier Joseph Pinetti. He was born in Orbetello and probably died in Russia. He was known as The Professor of Natural Magic and was a complex flamboyant personage. He performed in the later part of the 18th century and was the most celebrated magician of his time. He was the first magician to take advantage of advertising for the theatre.
context_section_description: The magician of the court of Louis XVI and then under the Directoire and First Empire, author of the Physical Amusements (1784), helped expand the art of magic and also created new effects. At the time, magicians performed in the streets as troubadours.  While other performers carried their equipment in bags tied around their waist and carried their tables under their arms,
  Pinetti brought his experiments as he called them, into the theatre.  His predecessors performed with brass and tin gadgets, while Pinetti's was made of gold and silver.  In his cabinet of curiosities, he claimed his tricks where based on controlled principles and presented them as scientific experiments.  He was a short pudgy man whose demeanor was that of a king.  During each performance he would change his gold-embroidered clothes three or four times throughout the evening.
  He was a professor in Rome before he became a professional magician. He did tricks for his students and presented them as demonstration of physics.  So successful was he that he soon reproduced those demonstrations for his friends.  They encouraged him to do it for the public.  By 1780, Pinetti was performing in Germany and billed himself as Joseph Pinetti, Roman Professor of Mathematics.
  He did such tricks with the impressive name Theophrastus Paracelsus. Pinetti suspended a pigeon by a ribbon that was tied by his neck.  A shadow of the bird was projected on the wall.  He took a knife and slashed the shadow image of the bird's neck and within seconds it was beheaded.
  Professor Pinetti performed frequently in his theatre des Menus Plaisirs du Roi, in the suburbs of Paris. His stage setting was glorious while at the same time being straightforward.  He had silk curtains around the stage, tables painted gold, and two crystal chandeliers hanging from above.  In France, critics said that Pinetti's opening night audience was large.  They went on to talk about the twenty-three experiments the Professor demonstrated.  Even though he only knew a few words in French, he had no problem charming the distinguished audience.  He soon became the talk of Paris.  So much so that the King commanded him to do a private performance for him.
  During his run in Paris, seats were a premium being booked weeks in advance. Professor Pinetti was riding this crest of fame until in early March 1784, a book was published revealing all of his experiments as mere tricks.  La Magic Blanche Dévoilée (Natural Magic Disclosed) was written by a lawyer and student of physics by the name of Henri Decremps.  Even though Pinetti's name was not mentioned, it was assumed that book was a revelation on his methods.  It quickly became a best seller.
  Even though not all of the tricks were correctly explained, the damage was done.  Attendance at the theatre dropped.  The book ruined the suspense that the experiments brought.  In June, Pinetti published his own book Amusements Physiques (Physical Amusements).  This was not the expose that Decremps wrote, but an instruction book teaching how to “amuse a company.”  Then he went to the providences and rehearsed a new program.  From there he went to England and he presented his experiments at the London's New Theatre.  Later he performed for King George III and the royal family.  While in London (from September 1784 and February 1785) he harshly rivalled with another well-known conjurer, Philip Breslaw.
  He returned to Paris, but his tour was shortened when another book was published by Decremps showing the new tricks of Pinetti's.  Decremps attempted to perform himself as a magician but was not as skilled on the stage as he was in his books.
  Professor Pinetti was mentioned in Robert-Houdin’s memoirs.  He told a fantastical story about his mentor Torrini, a/k/a Count Edmond de Grisy confrontation with Pinetti.  He claimed that Pinetti was jealous of the newcomer de Grisy and arranged a performance to sabotage him.  After the humiliation, de Grisy learned the profession so well, that his skills outmatched those of his rival.  So much so that Pinetti was forced to leave France.   It 
caption: Pinetti
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