CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/8/2016

Matthias Buchinger: “The Greatest German Living” By Ricky Jay

Congratulations Siglio Press, publisher of magician Ricky Jay's extraordinary history of Matthias Buchinger (1674-1739), a 29-inch-tall, legless, handless entertainer who amazed eighteenth-century audiences by performing magic tricks, playing music on an array of instruments (many of his own invention), and producing a mind-boggling body of micrographic artworks that were the subject of a recent exhibition at The Met. Buchinger also married four times and fathered 14 children over the course of 65 years. In addition to major reviews in the New Yorker, New York Times, New York Review of Books and Los Angeles Times, this "sumptuous, scholarly, witty new book" was reviewed last weekend in the New York Times Book Review by esteemed fellow conjurer, TELLER. "Ricky Jay’s learned prose sparkles with humor and passion," TELLER writes. "And it’s easy to see why Jay fell so hard for Matthias Buchinger. That little man was a dynamo, a mystery, a real-world superhero — though we’re not likely to see him in a Hollywood blockbuster. Comic book super¬heroes have sex appeal, but very little sex. In comparison, the portly, legless Buchinger was demonstrably a stud." Featured image is a stipple engraving self-portrait of Buchinger (London], 1724), 7 ½ x 11 5/8 inches.