Lot 85
  • 85

Lully, Jean-Baptiste

Estimate
8,000 - 10,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Lully, Jean-Baptiste
  • Persée, tragédie mise en musique, Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1682
  • paper
FIRST EDITION, [4], xlviii & 328 pages, folio (35.5 x 23.5cm), fine woodcut title device and headpieces, epistle to Louis XIV with fine historiated capital, type-set music throughout, CONTEMPORARY RED PANELLED MOROCCO GILT à la Duseuil”, fleurons, and 3-line fillets to covers, spine richly gilt in compartments with title ("Per/see") and turn-ins, marbled endpapers and fore-edges, frontispiece engraving of Persée (by Juan Dolivar after Jean Berin) inserted from the 1682 libretto, light spotting, title and epistle remargined at top, some wear to joints

Literature

LWV 60; RISM L 2993; Hirsch II.542;

Condition

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."

Catalogue Note

RARE: we have not seen a copy of this Lully first edition since 1995; before that only in 1962 and 1947 (Hill collection), and none so fine as this. Persée was among the first full scores of Lully's tragedies-lyriques to be published: only Bellérophon (1679) was earlier. It was the first French opera to make extensive use of orchestral accompaniment for solo voices and so has an important place in the history of music.  The frontispiece comes from a copy of the libretto for the first production at the "Académie royale de musique" in April 1682 (for examples of the libretto see Bibliothèque nationale de France, RES-YF-1095, and Pierre Bergé Associés, Paris, 28 June 2017, lot 619). For a similar binding, see the "à la Duseuil" designs in Yves Devaux, Dix siècles de reliure (1977), p.124.