Noverre, Jean-Georges

Lettres sur la Danse, et sur les Ballets.

A Stutgard, et se vend a Lyon, Delaroche, 1760. 8vo. iv + 484 pp. Contemporary full calf, spinegilt in compartments, joints neatly repaired. Engraved bookplate of John Selwin. First edition. There appeared two simultaneous issues of the first edition: the present one (with dedication to the Duc de Wurtemberg but without a leaf with Approbation and Privilege) and that with the same date and imprint ‘A Lyon, chez Aimé Delaroche’ (with a leaf with Approbation and Privilege but without the dedication). “Noverre’s Letters, considered as an exposition of the theories and laws governing ballet and dance representation, and as a contemporary history of dancing, have no equal in the whole of the literature devoted to the art, and no book has exerted so incalculable an influence for good on the manner and production of ballets and dances. Noverre was not only a most talented choréographe, but also a person possessed of an immense knowledge of his subject, and an unusual store of common sense and intelligence which he applied to the reform of every branch of his profession. The book is contrived in the form of a series of letters, in which he responds to all manner of questions relative to dancing, addressed to him by an imaginary correspondent. Noverre reformed stage costume, restored and developed the art of mime, emphasised the value of good music and decreed that all ballets must possess a good plot; he insisted that a dance must be designed not as a mere divertissement, but as a means of expressing or assisting the development of the theme” (Cyril W. Beaumont). En français dans le texte, 161.

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