Feuillet (Raoul-Auger) & Dezais (Jacques), 3 volumes bound as one: Chorégraphie ou l'art de d'écrire la dance par caracteres, figures et signes desmonstratifs...Par M.rs Feuillet et Dezais Maitres de Dances [RISM Écrits, p.314], Paris: Chez Dezais, 1713, 3 leaves, 95 pages, engraved throughout, dance notation and text; Recueil de dances, Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1709, 1 leaf, 84 pages, including 8 folding pages, engraved music with dance notation; Recueil de dances composées par M. Pécour...et mise sur le papier par M. Feuillet [RISM P 1129], Paris, Chez l'Auteur, 1709, 1 leaf, 72 pages, engraved music with dance notation; 8vo, contemporary mottled leather with five raised bands and gilt tooling to spine: ‘L’art de la Danc’

23.7cm x 17.2cm

From a private collector.

An intrigung volume containing editions of three important dance works by the French dancing-master and choreographer Raoul-Auger Feuillet (1659-60 to 1710). Editions of his works are rare at auction.

Unlike earlier choreographical methods, which only described dance steps through the written word, Feuillet uses visual representation, using diagrams to show the turns, leaps and slides of dancers and their movements. Feuillet's distinctive engravings include the related musical notation at the top of each plate. Not the least importance of Feuillet's system is that it allows us today to reconstruct, with a little help from the verbal descriptions of contemporary writers, the dances of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; it was also a major factor in confirming France's pre-eminence in the world of ballet.