What is "curious arts"

Curious \Cu"ri*ous\ (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]

1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.]

   Little curious in her clothes.
   --Fuller.

   How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith?
   --Beau. & Fl.

2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.

   To devise curious works.
   --Ex. xxxv. 32

   His body couched in a curious bed.
   --Shak.

3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of.

   It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history.
   --Woodward.

4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. ``Acurious tale''
   --Shak.

   A multitude of curious analogies.
   --Macaulay.

   Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
   --E. A. Poe.

   Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results.
   --C. J. Smith.

   Curious arts, magic. [Obs.]

   Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them.
   --Acts xix. 19.

   Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive.