View source for Žito

{{short description|Court magician}}
{{for multi|the Serbian custom|žito (koljivo)|other uses|Zito (disambiguation){{!}}Zito}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Žito
| image        = Zito_kouzelnik_Venceslav_Cerny.jpg
| caption      = Zito Kouzelnik Venceslav Cerny (1932)
| birth_name   = Unknown
| birth_date   = Unknown
| birth_place  = Unknown
| occupation   = Court magician of [[Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia]], illusionist, scam artist, livestock farmer/dealer
| years_active = ca. 14th Century
| spouse       = Unknown
| partner      = Unknown
| children     = Unknown
}}

'''Žito''' ({{IPA|cs|ˈʒɪto}},<ref name="Jirásek1992">{{cite book|author=Alois Jirásek|title=Old Czech Legends|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaHYAAAAMAAJ&q=%C5%BDito+magician|year=1992|publisher=Forest Books|isbn=978-1-85610-020-5|page=82}}</ref> also called Ziito, fl. fourteenth century) was a court-magician of [[Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia]].

==History==
Žito was well known as a conjurer and illusionist. Reportedly, he was [[Court dwarf|deformed]] and had a mouth that stretched from ear to ear.<ref name=bells>{{cite book|title=Bow Bells: A Magazine of General Literature and Art, for Family Reading, Illustrated with Numerous Engravings|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_M1RAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA403|year=1874|publisher=J. Dicks|page=403|chapter=The Science of Legerdemain}}</ref>

Among the tales told of his prowess with sleight of hand is one in which, during an argument with a visiting juggler, he swallowed him whole, except for his shoes. He returned a time later, leading his opponent by the hand.<ref name=bells/> Supposedly this occurred during the wedding of Wenceslaus and [[Sophia of Bavaria|Sophia]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Albion: A Weekly Chronicle of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-tFAAAAcAAJ&dq=%C5%BDito%20magician&pg=PA361|issue= 46|date=November 15, 1835|location=Stuttgart|page=361-|chapter=ZIITO}}</ref>

At a banquet, he caused a commotion outside, and when the guests went to look, he affixed deer antlers to their heads, which prevented them from drawing their heads back inside. While they struggled to remove them, he helped himself to sweets from their tables.

In another, he sold a butcher a dozen pigs, under the condition they not drink from running water. When they did so, the pigs changed into kernels of corn. He was angry at Žito and accosted him roughly, tearing one of his arms out by the roots.<ref>Godwin has that his leg was torn out. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-b05AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA276&dq=leg 276]</ref> The argument soon attracted a crowd and Žito called out that the butcher was actually selling human flesh in his stall. The crowd rushed to look and found the proof. When the butcher was about to be torn apart, Žito called out for the crowd to look again. They found only animal meat.<ref name=bells/>

He traveled in a cart drawn by poultry.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Thomsonian Botanic Watchman|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ycIhAQAAMAAJ&dq=Ziito%20magician&pg=PA139|volume=1|year=1834|page=139|chapter=ZIITO}} citing ''[[Lives of the Necromancers]]'' by Godwin</ref>

According to ''{{lang|la|Historia regni Boiemiae}}''; published in 1552 by [[Jan Dubravius|Dubravius]], he was at the end taken to Hell, in "both body and soul".<ref name="Classen2017">{{cite book|author=Albrecht Classen|title=Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Time: The Occult in Pre-Modern Sciences, Medicine, Literature, Religion, and Astrology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVFKDwAAQBAJ&dq=%C5%BDito%20magician&pg=PT613|date=23 October 2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-055652-0|page=613}}</ref>

==Factualness==

[[P. T. Barnum]], while considering all stories of magicians to be fictional, points out that the story of the butcher closely resembles a story about [[Faust|Doctor Faustus]] selling a magic trick horse, before allowing the enraged buyer to pull off his foot and leg while Faustus slept.<ref>{{cite book|author=P. T. Barnum|title=The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, In All Ages|location= New York|publisher=Carleton|date= 1866|page=[https://archive.org/details/humbugsworldana00barngoog/page/n292 306]|url=https://archive.org/details/humbugsworldana00barngoog|quote=Ziito Faust.|chapter=Ziito and His Large Swallow}}</ref>

While many of his exploits can be seen as the product of skilled [[Magic (illusion)|illusions]] such as [[Misdirection (magic)|Misdirection]] and [[List of quick-change acts|Quick-change]], in the past this was seen as the product of [[Magic (supernatural)|sorcery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.paranormality.com/occult_ziito.shtml|title=Ziito - Glossary of Occultism|work=www.paranormality.com|accessdate=14 April 2018}}</ref>

==Mentions==

Appeared in [[House of Secrets (DC Comics)|House of Secrets]]' short feature ''Realm of the Mystics''.<ref>{{cite comic|title=House of Secrets|date=May 1971|writer=Gerry Conway| penciller = [[Jack Sparling]]| inker = Jack Sparling|letterer=John Costanza|volume=1|issue=91}}</ref>

Appeared on a postage stamp of the Czech Republic in 1997.<ref>[https://www.freestampcatalogue.com/stj0144-europa-legends-2v 1997, Europa, legends 2v]</ref>

In [[Miroslav Holub|Holub]]'s poem "Žito the Magician", <ref name="Robson1979">{{cite book|author=Ernest M. Robson|title=Against Infinity: An Anthology of Contemporary Mathematical Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7ruAAAAMAAJ&q=Žito+magician|date=June 1979|publisher=Primary Press|isbn=978-0-934982-01-6|page=29}}</ref> Žito can do many wondrous things, but he can't make a <math>\sin(\alpha)</math> greater than one.

== References ==
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically -->
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{ws|[[s: The Humbugs of the World/Chapter XXXVI | The Humbugs of the World, Chapter XXXVI]]}}

<!--- Categories --->
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zito}}
[[Category:14th-century people from Bohemia]]
[[Category:Magicians]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of death unknown]]