C. Negri. Nuove inventioni di balli, 1604

Cesare Negri

Nuove inventioni di balli, Milan: Girolamo Bordone, 1604

4 leaves, 1-214, 211-276 and 281-296 [289 numbered 293] pages, 2 leaves, folio (29.8 x 20.3cm), engraved printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, 57 full-page engraved illustrations by Leon Pallavicino after designs by Mauro Rovere, portrait, table at end, typeset music and lute tablature, a few early annotations, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II E 11") to verso of title, together with a loose duplicate bifolium containing pp.275/76 and 281/82, nineteenth-century vellum-backed boards, pp.277-280 lacking, pp.63 and 69-70 in old manuscript, lacking a presumed plate on p.64, old repairs to upper margin of first four leaves, light worming, occasional light damp-staining, some browning and staining, including to title

RARE. Negri's celebrated book is arguably the most beautiful early dance treatise, containing fine large engraved illustrations of dancers as well as extensive music in staff notation and tablature for the lute. Negri's work includes lists of famous dancing masters of the period as well as the Italian and Spanish nobles present at various masquerades. This is a reissue of the author's Le gratie d'amore (1602), retaining the running heads of that edition. Some copies also include additional matter on a guard (p.203) and a correction slip (p.183), neither being present here.

LITERATURE:

Niles & Leslie, A Bibliography of Dancing, p.379; Gregory & Bartlett, i, 194; Cicognara 1725; Hirsch, i 429; Lipperheide 3060; Magriel, p.45; RISM N 359; RISM Écrits p.359

PROVENANCE:

From the collection of Arnold Dolmetsch