Melencolia
by Dr. Hans-Christian Solka

The date 1514 A.D. means something to you? It's possible to construct lightning-fast a magic square on the backside of a business card and hand it out as giveaway. This is by far the best ebook on magic squares for the mental entertainer. Melencolia I - Magic Squares for the Mental Entertainer becomes a modern classic. It is without a doubt an essential work in this field of mentalism on mostly unknown, smart and unforgettable methods for 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6 Magic Squares.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Part I - Dürer-type magic square
  1. Construction of the Dürer magic square
     1. Traditional method
     2. More magical method
        1. Singly-even magic sums
        2. Doubly-even magic sums
     3. Complement sum
     4. Restriction to even magic sums
     5. Adjusting the square
     6. Square and cube sums
  2. Summation patterns of Dürer-type magic squares
     1. Even magic sums
     2. Odd magic sums
  3. Transformation Characteristics
     1. Standard position
     2. Transformation into another associated magic square
     3. Transformation into a pandiagonal magic square
  4. Zigzag approach for semi-magic squares
     1. Construction
        1. First high zigzag pass
        2. First flat zigzag pass
        3. Second flat zigzag pass
        4. Second high zigzag pass
     2. Normal semi-magic square
     3. Adjusting a semi-magic square - any even magic sum
     4. Transformation of a semi-magic into a magic square
  5. Foursome and instant magic square
     1. Foursome square - any even magic sum
        1. Construction
        2. First and second pass: high and flat summit
        3. Third and fourth pass: flat and deep valley
        4. Normal square
        5. Adjusting the square
     2. Instant square - any magic sum
        1. Basic square
        2. Adjusting the square
     3. Instant Olgo square - any magic sum
     4. Balanced instant Olgo square - any magic sum
        1. Balanced square; without a remainder
        2. Balanced square; remainder of two
        3. Balanced square; remainder of one
        4. Balanced square; remainder of three
        5. Balanced square; an even magic sum only
• Part II - Jupiter
  6. Melencolia - the modified Dürer magic square
     1. Original and modified Dürer magic square
     2. Cloth hanger transformation
     3. Foursome attribute
     4. Presentation approaches
  7. Summation patterns of Melencolia-type magic squares
     1. Even magic sums
     2. Odd magic sums
     3. Flow of the summit and valley pattern
  8. Adjusting Melencolia-type magic squares - any magic sum
     1. Singly-even magic sums; without a remainder
        1. First pass: high summit
        2. Second pass: flat summit
        3. Third pass: flat valley
        4. Fourth pass: deep valley
        5. Completed square
        6. Simple forcing matrix to avoid calculations
     2. Doubly-even magic sums; remainder of two
        1. First pass: high summit
        2. Second pass: flat summit
        3. Third pass: flat valley
        4. Fourth pass: deep valley
     3. Odd magic sums; remainder of one
        1. First pass: high summit
        2. Second pass: flat summit
        3. Third pass: flat valley
        4. Fourth pass: deep valley
        5. Double set of complement pairs
     4. Odd magic sums; remainder of three
        1. First pass: high summit
        2. Second pass: flat summit
        3. Third pass: flat valley
        4. Fourth pass: deep valley
     5. Handling of small magic sums
     6. Sagrada Familia magic square
     7. Alternative handling of odd magic sums
        1. Odd magic sums; remainder of one
        2. Odd magic sums; remainder of three
     8. Duplicated and skipped numbers
     9. Transformation into another associated magic square
     10. Transformation into a pandiagonal magic square
  9. Swinging Melencolia - any starting number in any cell
     1. Singly-even magic sums
        1. High summit
        2. Flat summit
        3. Deep valley
        4. Flat valley
        5. Any starting number in any cell
     2. Doubly-even and odd magic sums
        1. Doubly-even magic sum; remainder of two
        2. Odd magic sum; a remainder of one
        3. Odd magic sum; a remainder of three
     3. Psychometric swinging
     4. Concealing the Swinging Melencolia method
  10. 4x4 Musings
      1. Spectator's body height
      2. Any number in any cell
      3. Spectator's year of birth
      4. Lightning magic year square
      5. Counting backwards
      6. Counting a sequence of odd or even numbers
      7. Concealing counting sequences
      8. Two personal numbers
      9. Annemann-like presentation of the magic year square
      10. Magic birthday square
          1. Graeco-Latin approach
          2. General arithmetical approach
          3. Avoidance of negative numbers
          4. No-brainer approach
• Part III - Mars
  11. Super-magic 5x5 square
  12. Pandiagonal 5x5 magic square
      1. Any starting number
         1. Any named number in any cell
         2. Closed cycle force
      2. Any magic sum
         1. Central start cell
         2. Disguise of the method
         3. Any start cell
      3. Any magic sum - red herring approach
         1. Without a remainder
         2. Remainder of one
         3. Remainder of two
         4. Remainder of three
         5. Remainder of four
         6. Put it all together
      4. Any magic sum - almost-sequential approach
         1. Without a remainder
         2. Remainder of one
         3. Remainder of two
         4. Remainder of three
         5. Remainder of four
  13. 5x5 summation patterns
      1. Basic and pandiagonal magic patterns
      2. Small crosses, small X, and broken magic patterns
      3. Knight's and exception moves
  14. Sigil of life
      1. Routine
      2. Explanation
      3. Another storyline
  15. Envelope and money purse prediction
• Part IV - Sun
  16. 6x6 magic square
  17. New construction method
      1. Sequences
         1. Sequence I
         2. Sequence II
         3. Sequence III
         4. Completed square
      2. Any magic sum
      3. Closed cycle - any named number in any cell
  18. Concentric 6x6 magic square
      1. Construction of the inlaid 4x4 magic square
      2. Construction of the outer border
      3. Construction of a bordered square
      4. Left-to-right addition
  19. One more thing
      1. Singly-even magic sums
      2. Inlaid square
      3. Border of consecutive numbers
      4. Blowing up the thing further
• Recommended readings and final thoughts
• Glossary
• Appendices