A small black figure sealed in glass sits in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. Initially cataloged in 1659 as art depicting a devil, by 1720 the Imperial Treasury described it as a 'spiritus familiaris' driven from a possessed person. The object's description shifted from artwork to supernatural prisoner as enlightenment attitudes changed.
Vienna Devil in Glass: 400-Year-Old Artifact and Its Evolving Description
Site mentioned
📍 Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Antikensammlung und Münzkabinett🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- The artifact is housed in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, dated to early 1600s
- It measures 6.6 centimeters tall, cast in black lead and sealed in glass
- Inventory number: Kunstkammer 6211
- 1659 inventory of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm cataloged it simply as 'a small square glass containing a black little man in the shape of a devil' - as art
- 1720 Austrian Imperial Treasury inventory claimed it was a 'spiritus familiaris' driven out of a possessed person and banished into the glass
- By the age of enlightenment, the artifact's description shifted from art to 'supernatural prisoner'
- The object represents a historical practice of containing demons in glass objects, condemned by Popes since 1326
Sources
The "Impossible" Artifact: A 400-Year-Old Devil Trapped in Glassthearchaeologist.org
Not a legend. But a devil sealed inside glass. Known in German as Teufel im Glase, the object is a faceted glass prism just 6.6 centimeters tall ...
Tiny Demon preserved in a prism of glass - Boing Boingboingboing.net
A tiny devil vitrified in a prism of glass. In the 18th century, the Imperial Treasury of Vienna attested that this was a real demon.
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.