Circus Art as an object of historical research (the 18th — first half of the 19th century)

Abstract

The reflection of the history and the processes of the development of Circus Arts from the Ancient times, in the printed sources of the late 18th — first half of the 19th centuries — scientific studies, encyclopedias, research essays, memoirs, periodicals — have been tracked and analyzed in chronological order, as a part of the research of Circus Art at the Western Ukrainian lands at the time that they were a part of the Habsburg empire. The 16th — 19th centuries’ handbooks on Equestrian Art and Gymnastic Art have been researched. Illustrations from the 17th — 19th centuries’ printed sources are being presented. It turns out that the arts and genres presented at the arena of the modern Circus have been described, depicted and studied by the European authors more than three centuries ago. Most of the sources used by the author are being introduced into the Circus Arts’ research discourse for the first time.