This article presents a hitherto unpublished account of a magical séance conducted by the virtuoso Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700), later Fellow of the Royal Society, while travelling in Venice ca 1648. The episode had previously been known through an account of it given by Robert Boyle, but in Boyle's version its protagonist was unclear. It is now for the first time revealed as Henshaw on the basis of a further record of it among the papers of John Sharp, Archbishop of York (1645?–1714). The discrepancies between the ‘new’ version of the story and that given by Boyle are here elucidated and the opportunity is taken to outline the background to the séance in terms of the history of magic in early modern Venice. In addition, broader comments are included on the implications of the episode for attitudes towards alchemy and magic in the period.

这篇文章介绍了一个迄今为止未发表的魔法降神会，由演奏家托马斯·亨肖（Thomas Henshaw，1618-1700 年），后来的皇家学会会员，在威尼斯旅行时进行的魔法降神会1648. 此前人们通过罗伯特·博伊尔 (Robert Boyle) 的叙述了解了这一集，但在博伊尔的版本中，其主人公并不清楚。根据约克大主教约翰·夏普 (1645?–1714) 的进一步记录，现在首次将其命名为亨肖。此处阐明了故事的“新”版本与博伊尔给出的版本之间的差异，并借此机会根据早期现代威尼斯的魔法历史概述降神会的背景。此外，还包括了更广泛的评论，内容涉及该剧集对当时人们对炼金术和魔法的态度的影响。