La tente et le chapiteau

The circus is all the rage these days. Its location plays a part in its alchemy, here a big top, there a stable building. Its history is inseparable from that of travel. Its first artists, cavalry officers who left the army to practise acrobatics in public, belonged to the culture of camp life. Carrying on the tradition of nomadism, they adopted its architecture, whose attribute is the ephemeral; its material the canvas, its structure the masts and stretchers. Throughout history, tents and marquees have rivalled each other in beauty, luxury and technical prowess. From Egypt, Persia, Turkey and Europe to Russia, Mongolia and the United States, this book takes us into the exciting lives of the adventurers and conquerors who built our world.