magic 1400s - 1950s (h/b)

Magic has enchanted humankind for thousands of years, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement in its audiences. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility -whether invoking spirits, reading minds, or inverting the laws of nature by sleight of hand. Before science fiction, virtual realities, video games, and the Internet, magicians were the pioneers of special effects in human history. This book celebrates more than 500 years of the stunning visual culture of the world's greatest magicians from the 1400s to the 1950s. Featuring more than 1000 rarely seen vintage posters, photographs, handbills, and engravings in one 650-page volume, it traces the history of magic as a performing art. (. . .) (ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΣΗ ΣΤΟ ΟΠΙΣΘΟΦΥΛΛΟ ΤΟΥ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΥ)