Cinema before cinema : the origins of scientific cinematography / Virgilio Tosi ; translated by Sergio Angelini.

London : British Universities Film and Video Council, [2005]

xi, 234 pages : black and white illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Foreword / Paolo Cherchi Usai -- Introduction to English edition / Murray Weston -- Translator's note / Sergio Angelini -- pt. I. How histories give birth to the cinema -- Hunting for ancestors -- The nationalism of the invention -- The mythology of the cinematic spectacle -- The historiography of the origins -- What caused the birth of cinema? -- pt. II. The pre-history of scientific cinema -- London, c.1820 -- Brussels, c.1825 -- Vienna, c.1830 -- A 'daedaleum' full of inventors -- The heart beats to a didactic end -- Optical toys -- Photography arrives on the scene -- pt. III. Historical background to the birth of scientific cinema -- The retina of the scientist -- The first scientific cine camera -- The adventurous photographer -- Twenty-four cameras for a horse -- To study locomotion -- A century on -- Speaker by necessity -- Muybridge afterwards -- Marey and movement -- More engineer than doctor -- The photographic gun -- Chronophotography, new research instrument -- Twenty images per second -- Edison discovers Marey -- A cat always falls on its feet -- Marey and aerial navigation -- The Institut Marey -- Marey and Lumière -- Anschütz' Electrotachyscope -- At the hospital of Salpêtrière -- 'Je vous aime' -- Between cinema and gymnastics -- The Industrial Revolution and the study of movement -- Scientific research and technological problems -- Scientific cinema and entertainment cinema -- Doctors with a cine camera -- X-rays in movement -- In university laboratories -- Profession: scientific cineaste -- Disciples of Marey -- From microbiology to icebreakers -- Special techniques -- Conclusions -- Coda: The results of new research.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 192-197) and index.

Translated from the Italian original "Cinema prima di Lumière."