Histoire générale de la danse

Paris: chez d'Houry, 1723. First edition. Fine. First issue. Twelvemo (6 1/8 x 3 1/4 in; 156 x 82 mm). xl, 269, [3, adv.] pp. Head- tailpieces, initials. Bound c. 1875 by H. de Courmont (stamp-signed) in full navy blue crushed morocco with French fillets, gilt-rolled edges, gilt-tooled dentelles. Gilt-rolled raised bands, delicately gilt decorated compartments. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. With the bookplate of Avg. Anastas. A fine copy.

One of the first histories of dance and ballet, from the Egyptians and Greeks through the early eighteenth century, this rarity contains an account of ballet and dance in the theater, a list of ballets performed in the courts of Europe 1450-1723, a chapter on the origins of masked balls, one on rope-dancing and gymnastics, and an invaluable little history of funambulism aka tightrope walking. Little is known of binder H. de Courmont beyond that he worked in Paris during the last third of the nineteenth century and was renowned for the delicacy of his bindings.

The exceptionally scarce first issue, recorded only by Toole-Stott, the standard bibliographies noting only the 1724 second issue. Toole-Stott 81; Magriel, p.29; Cf. Eitner II, 115; Cf. Fetis II, 18; Cf. Fletcher 24. Fine.