J.-B. LULLY, CONTEMPORARY MANUSCRIPT FULL SCORE OF "LE TEMPLE DE LA PAIX"

in a Prologue, six entrées and a Chaconne, including 'Prelude' [for Daphnis Silvandre & Philene], Solo for Philene [alto] (f.54), 'Entrée des Basques' (including a duet for "un Biscayen et une Biscayenne"), 'Entrée des Bretons et Bretonnes', 'Entrée des Sauvages de l'Amérique' (f.81: including two airs and "Choeur des Ameriquains"), a 'Prelude' ([6th entrée]: 'Des Affriquains'], and a final 'Chaconne' ; a "reduced full score", notated in brown ink for voices and orchestra, with recitatives, solos and choruses, on twelve staves per page, the orchestral accompaniment on six-stave systems, running heads throughout, 240 pages, folio (39.3 x 27.5cm), foliated 1-120, 12-stave paper, grapes watermark, no separate title page, contemporary polished calf, spine gilt in compartments, French provenance, probably early eighteenth century, damp-staining to leading margins, not affecting the text, spine slightly defective at foot, title-label worn,

H. Schneider, LWV 69, p.453. André Meyer: see Collection musicale André Meyer, ed. F. Lesure (Paris: 1960), ii p.48; presentation note to endpaper.  This manuscript was not in Sotheby's sale of the Meyer collection on 16 & 17 October 2012.

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RARE: we can trace no record of Lully's final ballet, Le temple de la paix, appearing at auction either in printed or manuscript form.  It is notable for its fifth entrée, performed by a troupe dressed as Native Americans, which has crossed the vast ocean to lay tribute to Louis XIV. Other Lully ballets contained entrées for "Indiens" and "Sauvages", but this is apparently the only one to specify "Ameriquains".  As explained in the contemporary libretto, "the natives of the French colonies in America have come to the Temple of Peace to demonstrate, through their songs and their dances, the joy they experience through being subjects of a powerful and glorious King, under whom they enjoy contentment and tranquillity": "Les sauvages des Provinces de l'Amerique qui despendent de la France, viennent au Temple de la Paix, & font connoistre par leurs chansons, & par leurs danses le plaisir qu'ils ont d'estre sous l'Empire d'un Roy puissant & glorieux qui les fait joüir d'une heureuse tranquillité"

The first performance was given before Louis XIV at Fontainebleau on 20 October 1685. H. Schneider, LWV 69 (p.453) records two copies of the "Partition générale", in Paris and Berkeley, and two copies of the "Partition reduite", namely this copy and one other at Yale.