KNOWLEDGE. 



January, 1913. 



Figure 10. The Villa degli Angeli at Fiesole, as 



photographed from Florence through a telescope 



magnifying 40 diameters. 



■■■■■■I 



Figure 11. The Villa Torrosa, Fiesole, as photographed 

 from Florence through a telescope. 



vision which is brought 

 out more vividly in a 

 powerful instrument. 



In order to exhibit 

 this peculiarity to its 

 fullest extent, I insti- 

 tuted some experiments 

 in the photography of 

 distant buildings by 

 means of an ordinary 

 Kodak camera, from 

 which the lens had 

 been previously remov- 

 ed, attached to a three- 

 inch refracting tele- 

 scope, fitted with an 

 eyepiece magnifying 

 some forty diameters ; 

 and although, as might 



be expected from the non-photographic character of the usual 

 telescopic objective, the resulting pictures leave a good deal 

 to be desired as regards strength and clearness, they are 

 sufficiently distinct to show the characteristic feature of 

 telescopic vision in a very striking manner. Taking advan- 

 tage, therefore, of the extensive view commanded from the 

 terrace of the Palazzo Vecchio near the centre of Florence, 



I first took an ordinary photograph of the group of hills, 

 some three miles distant, upon which is situated the ancient 

 town of Fiesole, and then, combining camera and telescope 

 in the manner described, photographed separately some of 

 the more conspicuous villas embraced in the general view. 

 Thus Figure 9 may be regarded as representing the naked- 

 eye view of Fiesole as seen from Florence*, while Figures 10, 



II and 12 represent the telescopic images of the villas 



* The two towers in the picture, which, as here reproduced, is 



necessarily seen on a reduced scale, are (from left to right) those 



of the Badia and the Bargello. 



■f Illusions, A Psychological Study, by James Sully, 1895 (Vol. 

 XXXIV of the International Scientific Series). 



just discernible, and marked respectively with one, two, and 

 three dots, in Figure 9. Of these, Figure 12, which shows 

 the corner and foreshortened side of the villa marked with 

 three dots in the middle-distance of Figure 9, offers 

 undoubtedly the most violent shock to our ideas of rational 

 perspective, and' may for this reason be taken as a fitting 

 object lesson in connection with our present topic. The 

 distance from the observer — about one and a half miles — 

 and the position of the house with regard to his line of 

 sight, as well as the magnification employed, all conspire in 

 this case to produce a most interesting result ; and so odd, 

 in fact, was the aspect which this particular building 

 presented in the telescope that it was known as the Villa 

 Storta, or crooked villa, by those who thus beheld it for 

 the first time. But the crookedness is, after all, merely 

 psychological, for the photograph serves as a singularly 

 apposite illustration of what Professor James Sully calls 

 interpretative illusion. + 



Now, as the perception of magnitude is closely connected 

 with that of distance, and the building depicted is sufficiently 

 removed from the observer for its near and far ends to be 

 seen under practically the same visual angle, our ordinary 



ideas of perspective 



are disturbed. We 

 are, in fact, by virtue 

 of the magnifying 

 power of the telescope, 

 able to contemplate 

 this building under 

 conditions foreign to 

 those under which our 

 experience has been 

 hitherto gained, so that 

 the lines of roof and 

 first story, instead of 

 converging as they 

 recede from us, as 

 would certainly be the 

 case if the building 

 were actually as near 



Figure 12. The Villa Ventaglio, as photographed 

 through a telescope. . .. 



