In this dissertation I will present conducting before the French Revolution. I conceived the topic as a chronological overview of available written and pictorial sources through history from the 16th century to roughly the middle of the 19th century. The paper is divided into two main parts. The first part presents primarily pictorial representations of the practice of ensemble-leading and conducting, while the second and main part of the dissertation is based on written traces of the above-mentioned practice. I collected testimonies, critiques, reviews, letters, and treatises on conducting and ensemble-leading and ordered them by countries or main centers and sources of national styles of early music (until circa 1800). The last part of the paper presents the consequences of the statements made on today's practice of conducting of above-mentioned repertoire and the vision of the ideal conductor from the most famous writings of the 17th and 18th centuries. For this thesis, I used historical pictorial representations, professional literature and historical writings in English, French, Italian and German.