Bartolomeo Bosco

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bartolomeo Bosco, lithograph by Gabriel Decker , 1845

Bartolomeo Bosco (born January 3, 1793 in Turin , † March 7, 1863 in Gruna (Dresden) ) was an Italian magician who last lived in Dresden. He is regarded as one of the first members of a "honest Magic " at the beginning of the 19th century in the magic moving away from mystification and superstition towards the art of entertainment took place.

Life

Giovanni Bartolomeo was the son of Matteo Bosco and Celilia Bosco, b. Cerore. Nothing is known about his childhood. In 1812, he said he was employed during the Napoleonic campaign in Russia, was wounded in Borodino and was taken prisoner. He was exiled to a Siberian camp near Tobolsk before he was released again in 1814 through an exchange of prisoners of war. He returned to Italy to study medicine, but the love of magic was stronger.

Grave of Bartolomeo Bosco in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden

Bosco was buried in his adopted home of Dresden in the Old Catholic Cemetery. His forgotten grave with the magnificent gravestone was visited in 1903 by the magician Harry Houdini . He found that the rent was almost up and it should be abandoned. He bought the grave and headstone and left it to his magic association, the Society of American Magicians . The grave has been cared for since that time, by generations of “Dresden magicians”. In his honor the Dresden local circle of the Magical Circle of Germany (the organization of the magical artists ), the name Magischer Zirkel Dresden Bartolomeo Bosco eV

Bosco has a seat in the Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame today .

Art and effect

Detail illustration of the "cup game" at the grave

Within a very short time, Bosco became a famous magician all over Europe, and not only because of his dexterity, but because he was “a brilliant master of advertising”, as Michael Seldow writes in The Art of Sawing Women . Bosco's name remains forever associated with the famous cup game, in which small nutmeg balls wander back and forth from one cup to the next in an amazing way, because they are invisible - a dexterity that you can see nowadays all over the world in the form of the shell game , albeit with the subtle difference that they are clearly out to cheat, but Bosco only deceived his audience for their amusement and thereby wanted to entertain. He appeared in front of the common people in stalls, in squares and streets as well as in theaters and on stages in front of sophisticated audiences and at courts in front of princes, kings and emperors.

So Bosco showed his skills at the courts of the following crowned heads:

  • 1821 to the King of Hanover
  • 1822 to the King of Prussia
  • 1823 to the Tsar Alexander of Russia
  • 1828 to the Emperor of Austria
  • 1829 to the Archduke Joseph, governor of Hungary
  • 1830 to the King of Denmark
  • 1833 the Queen of Sardinia
  • 1836 by Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon's widow
  • 1837 to the King of Naples
  • 1838 to the Bey of Tunis
  • 1839 to the viceroy of Egypt
  • 1852 to the Emperor Napoleon III.
  • 1855 by Queen Victoria of England

In 1852 you could read in 'L'Illustration, Journal Universel' that there was only one thing “that he couldn't make to disappear: his tremendous success.” He inspired the French fashion and cultural world, people wore boots and skirts la Bosco and even a dance was named after him.

Quotes about Bosco

“ Even then he was able to do what was still unusual at the time: the theaters of the big cities from Berlin to Vienna and from Petersburg to Paris opened their stages to him. "

- Alexander Adrion

“ ... Tricks alone do not make a magical artist , that includes more: personality, feeling for people, poetic puns like creative genius, a sack of straightforward talent and a spark of self-irony - in short: presence of mind, not cheap repartee. Bosco has combined all of this in his lovable nature - how else could he have become one of the most famous artists of his time and a pioneer of modern magic! "

- Natias Neutert

literature

  • Curiose avventure e brevi cenni sulla vita di Bartolomeo Bosco da Turino esimio prestigiatore ed inventore della magia egiziana con un compendio nominativo di dilettevoli giochi di fisica e di meccanica da lui ritrovati . Napoli: Fibreno 1837
  • Bruno Di Porto:  Bosco, Giovanni Bartolomeo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 13:  Borremans – Brancazolo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1971.
  • Harry Houdini : The unmasking of Robert-Houdin. In: The Publishers Printing Co. New York 1908 ( online version ).

Web links

Commons : Bartolomeo Bosco  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Michael Seldow: The art of sawing women , based on the French original edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transferred by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1964, pp. 75, 78.
  2. ↑ Cf. Alexander Adrion: The art of magic . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, p. 168.
  3. ↑ Cf. Michael Seldow: The Art of Sawing Women , based on the French original edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transferred by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1964, p. 75.
  4. ↑ Cf. Alexander Adrion: The art of magic . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, p. 168.
  5. ↑ Cf. Michael Seldow: The Art of Sawing Women , based on the French original edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transferred by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1964, p. 76.
  6. ↑ Harry Houdini: The unmasking of Robert-Houdin. In: The Publishers Printing Co. New York 1908, pp. 306 f. ( Online version with a photo of Houdini at the grave of Bosco and his wife, 1903).
  7. ↑ Dresden Magic Circle
  8. ↑ Michael Seldow: The art to saw women , after the original French edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transmitted by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Luebbe Verlag, 1964, p 76th
  9. ↑ Cf. Michael Seldow: The art of sawing women , based on the French original edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transferred by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1964, p. 77.
  10. ↑ Cf. Michael Seldow: The art of sawing women , based on the French original edition Les illusionistes et leurs Secrets , transferred by Peter Schuster-Fabian, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1964, p. 77.
  11. ↑ Cf. Alexander Adrion: The art of magic . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, p. 168.
  12. ↑ Cf. Natias Neutert : Hoch die Becher, Altmeister der Zauberer: Bartolomeo Bosco in DIE ZEIT No. 2, January 8, 1993.
  13. ↑ Alexander Adrion : The art of conjuring . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, pp. 168–169.
  14. ↑ Quoted from Alexander Adrion : The art of magic . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, p. 169.
  15. ↑ Alexander Adrion : The art of conjuring . With a collection of the most interesting art pieces for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, p. 168.
  16. ↑ Natias Neutert : Hoch die Becher, old master of magicians: Bartolomeo Bosco in DIE ZEIT No. 2, January 8, 1993.
  17. ^ Evidence in the SBN Opac
personal data
SURNAME Bosco, Bartolomeo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bosco, Giovanni Bartolomeo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian magician
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Turin
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1863
Place of death Gruna (Dresden)