Bado e Mart Auctions
Lot 179
NEGRI, Cesare. Nuove inventioni di balli. Milano, Bordone, 1604Folio, mm. 326x225. Full brown leather binding with gilt decorations impressed on the covers and spine. Pages [8, including plate with Portrait], 296, [4]. Some numbering errors, as reported on the last page of the text. Pages 207-208 in facsimile. Woodcut initials, headpieces and tailpieces. Illustrated vignette with printer’s device on the Title Page, Portrait of the Author outside the text on a full page, 57 full-page plates in the text within borders [out of 58], all engraved in copper. The plate on page 208 is missing; the facsimile reproduction is inserted. Some traces of wear, generally a good copy. Very rare work, magnificently illustrated. The most important treatise on the history of dance, music and costumes of the 17th century. The most important treatise on the history of dance, music and costumes of the 17th century. The volume, dedicated to Philip III of Spain, is adorned with a full-page portrait of the author Cesare de Negri, included in only a few copies, and by 58 superb full-page prints of ballets, dancers, accompanied by well-known music, drawn by Giovan Mauro della Rovere, known as “il Fiamminghino”, and engraved by Leon Pallavicino. Many illustrations are signed as designed by (I.) M(auro) R(overe), and all are signed as engraved by L(eon) P(alavicino), apart from that on p.149, which is unsigned. The work is divided into three parts: the first names all the most famous dancers of the time, and describes the sumptuous dance parties held in Milan; the second part describes the dance techniques, while the third describes the evolution of ballet from a scenic and musical point of view. In this third part appear the names of the knights and ladies, belonging to the high Milanese aristocracy. From p. 117 onwards the text contains many passages of music for the lute. The title-page vignette shows the printer's device, with the motto 'Velascus Crescit Occulto'.This publication is largely a reprint of the work first published in Milan in 1602 under the title ‘Le Gratie d'Amore’, but with a new title-page and a number of small emendations to the text.Cesare Negri, a Milanese, founded a dance academy here in 1554 and was one of the most important dancers and choreographers of the time.Brunet, IV, 34 and ‘Supplement’ II, 13; Cicognara, n. 1725; Fétis, VI, 295; Eitner, VII, 166; Hoepli, Cento libri preziosi; Beaumont p. 132.