Contant, Clément & De Fillipi, Joseph.

Parallèle des principaux théâtres modernes de l'Europe et des machines théâtrales françaises, allemandes et anglaises.

Paris (A. Lévy fils), 1860. (6), 163, (1)pp., 133 line-engraved plates (in 2 series) after Contant.Lrg. folio. Marbled boards, 1/4 red morocco gilt (head of backstrip chipped). The expanded edition, and the first with De Filippi’s text, published a generation after the first edition of 1842, an atlas of plates only. The most comprehensive and elaborate study of its time, the work contains highly detailed scale drawings by Contant, “ancien machiniste en chef du théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra,” documenting 30 of the most important theatres and opera houses in Europe, and their technical facilities: the old Paris Opéra and Théâtre Comique, Covent Garden and Drury Lane, La Scala, and others in Marseilles, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Versailles, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Karlsruhe, Mainz, Darmstadt, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Naples, Turin, Genoa, Parma, Reggio and Madrid. Grandly conceived and meticulously documented, it remained the key publication on the subject for more than thirty years, until the appearance of Sachs’ “Modern Opera Houses and Theatres” at the end of the century. A little light foxing; generally a fine crisp copy.

• USD 3,500.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: B07792-1

• bookseller: Ars Libri Ltd. (USA)