Described by Cardano in his Subtlety and Subtle Inventions. Balthazar Bekker in The Enchanted World, 1694, Book IV, Chapter 4, also refers to the trick of “nails and thread in the mouth”. Guillemin, in his Illustrated History of White Magic, p. 97, says this is probably the first reference to this trick. But he is not clear as to where Cardano's descriptions fit into this claim, as they must have come before 1694, Cardano's lifetime being 1501-1576.