[ROUSSELET, Jean-Pierre] [LULLY, Jean-Baptiste]

Recueil par extraits Des plus beaux endroits Des Opéra de M. de Lully suivant l'ordre [Paris], [après 1687] A SUPERB MANUSCRIPT BY LULLY, WRITTEN WITH THE PEN AND BRUSH OF JEAN-PIERRE ROUSSELET. WE READ THE GREAT ARIAS. WE CAN SEE THE SETS OF THE OPERAS PLAYED IN THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES. AN ILLUMINATED TRIBUTE TO THE CREATOR OF FRENCH OPERA AND TO A WORK THAT HAD A CONSIDERABLE IMPACT THROUGHOUT EUROPE. THIS COURT MANUSCRIPT BELONGED TO THE PERSONAL COLLECTIONS OF THE BOOKSELLERS EDOUARD RAHIR AND MAURICE CHAMONAL, AND TO THE BOOKSELLER H.P. KRAUS. for a time it joined the very famous collection of manuscripts of peter and ireen luwig. IT IS ALSO A BRILLIANT TESTIMONY OF THE LINK BETWEEN LOUIS XIV, HIS COURT, MUSIC AND THE BRILLIANT ARTIST JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER, ILLUMINATED AND ILLUMINATED, undoubtedly the work of calligrapher and illuminator Jean-Pierre ROUSSELET, in brown, black, red and blue ink. No watermark is visible in the paper of the manuscript In-8 (172 x 112 mm) COLLATION : 68 pages on 35 leaves CONTENTS : f. 1r: title, 2r: (1) La Grotte de Versailles 1670 [LWV 39], 2v: (2) Les Festes de l'amour & de Bachus 1671 [LWV 47], 3v: (3) Cadmus 1672 (sic) [LWV 49], 5r: (4) Alceste 1673 [LWV 50], 7r: (5) Thésée 1674 [LWV 51], 9v: (6) Atys 1675 [LWV 53], 12r: (7) Isis 1676 [LWV 54], 14r: (8) Psyché 1678 [LWV 56], 16r: (9) Bellérophon 1679 [LWV 57], 17v: (10) Proserpine 1680 [LWV 58], 20r : (11) Le Triomphe de l'amour [et de Bacchus] 1681 [LWV 59], 22r: (12) Persée 1682 [LWV 60], 24r: (13) Phaéton 1683 [LWV 61], 25v: (14) Amadis 168 (sic) [LWV 63], 27v: (15) Roland 1685 [LWV 65], 29v: (16) Le Temple de la Paix 1685 [LWV 69], 30v: (17) Armide 1686 [LWV 71], 32v: (18) Acis et Galatée 1686 [LWV 73], 34r: (19) Achille 1687 [LWV 74], 35r: end of the manuscript We note some dating errors in the dates of some performances ENLUMINATED ORNAMENTATION: title in calligraphy in blue and red illuminated letters, placed in the triple illuminated frame of a wide border, an outer border with a painted lattice decoration typical of Jean-Pierre Rousselet's style and an outer border line, a double curved frame of blue nets. Each page and each opera title are framed with an illuminated fillet. Cartouches and endpapers bordered with parma or blue fillets and illuminated frames ORIGINAL DRAWINGS: 19 SUPERB CARTOUCHES AND 16 CULS-DE-LAMPE in black, grey or brown ink with black and grey wash highlights. The cartouche of the Triumph of Love (f° 20 r) is in watercolor of multiple colors and, more accomplished, it seems to be from another hand BINDING STRICTLY OF THE PERIOD. Red morocco, gilt decoration, large framed with small irons bordered by fillets and a second frame, very ornate spine, midnight blue morocco lining with fleur-de-lys motif, paper endpapers with an unassignable watermark [CB and a heart, cf. Gaudriault, pl. 126], gilt edges on marbled boards. Black morocco box PROVENANCE: not listed before: Édouard Rahir (1862-1924; bookplate; Paris, 1937, no. 1460, 20,000 FF, reproduced in color), acquired at this sale by Maurice Chamonal against the expert of the Le François sale -- Chamonal collection -- acquired by H. P. Kraus (1907-1988) from Maurice Chamonal in the mid-1950s, then Catalogue H. P. Kraus, no. 100, 1962, item 34, with the mention "price on request" -- Dr. Peter and Irene Ludwig (1925-1996), one of the greatest collectors of modern and contemporary art in the 20th century, and of illuminated manuscripts acquired en bloc by the Getty Museum in 1983. This Lully manuscript was purchased by Ludwig in 1963 from H.P. Kraus, and then resold to H.P. Kraus in 1969 -- H. P. Kraus catalog, no. 159, 1981, item 21, $ 65,000 Two small losses in the illuminated border of the title All of Jean-Baptiste Lully's very famous fifteen tragédies lyriques are present in the manuscript. They follow the list given by Jérôme de La Gorce (op. cit., p. 853) who adds Les Festes de l'amour & de Bachus 1671 to the list given by Wikipedia. Not one of Lully's great operas is missing - with the exception of the very first lyric tragedy that is not yet an opera, Les Folies d'Espagne of 1672. To these fifteen operas are added here: La Grotte de Versailles, the first collaboration of Quinault and Lully placed at the head of the collection, which has "the appearance of a small opera" (http://sitelully.free.fr/grotte.htm), first given in 1668. The eleventh piece of the collection, Le Triomphe de l'amour [et de Bacchus] 1681, and the sixteenth piece (Le Temple de la Paix 1685) are not operas but court ballets. The eighteenth Acis et Galatée 1686 is a heroic pastoral. Two or three pages are devoted to each work. They summarize in one sentence the great arias of each piece so that the great lord for whom this manuscript was composed could keep it in his pocket.