Feuillet, Raoul-Auger.

3 parts in one volume, first editions, 4to (24 x 18cm), 106, 84 and 72 pages, dedicatory epistle to Pécour, preface, privilege, engravings of dance steps with music, some on folding leaves, woodcut diagrams in text, rebacked retaining contemporary gilt spine, small tear to lower margin of pp.59/60 of the first part, most engraved diagrams trimmed to plate or very slightly cropped at the upper edges 

RISM Ecrits, i, p. 314 [volume one]; BUC, p. 333 [volume two]; RISM P 1125 and BUC, p. 767 [volume three]; TNG, 'Feuillet, Raoul-Auger', pp. 751-752

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A magnificent volume containing the seminal Chorégraphie, the origin of eighteenth-century dance notation.

The Chorégraphie is a book of great rarity: only  five copies are listed in RISM (there is no copy in the British Library), and no copies have been traced by us at auction during the last 30 years. Of the other parts at auction, we have only traced the second, in the sale in these rooms, 16 July 1979, lot 181.

Unlike previous choreographical methods, which only described dance steps verbally, Feuillet's is a visual representation, using flowing diagrams ('track notation') to show the turns, leaps and slides of the dancer and his movements across the dance floor. Feuillet's distinctive and highly attractive engravings include the appropriate dance tunes at the top of each plate. The dances described in this volume include the rigaudon, gigue, sarabande, canary à deux, entrée grave pour homme, bourée d'Achille, mariée, passepied and forlana; of particular note is the extraordinary complexity of the elaborate 'Balet de neuf Danseurs' which provides the concluding highpoint to the Chorégraphie. From the same year as this great work are the two other parts of the present volume, one containing fifteen of Feuillet's own dances, the other, nine dances and dance suites by his great contemporary Louis Guillaume Pécour. 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.