Giphantia: Or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World.

"Giphantia" by Charles-François Tiphaigne de La Roche is a novel published in 1760. The title is an anagram of the author's given name. In this remarkable work, the author envisions a process strikingly similar to photography—nearly a century before its invention. Elementary spirits demonstrate a technique for capturing and fixing reflected light rays onto canvas using a viscous substance, creating permanent images that mirrors cannot retain. This prescient vision describes pictures made "in the twinkle of an eye" that time cannot damage. (This is an automatically generated summary.)