CORELLI, Arcangelo 1653-1713

Opera Quinta da Arcangelo Corelli da Fusignano Parte Ia. [-IIa.]

Paris: Chez les Sieurs Ballard, rüe St. Jean de Beauvais au Mont Parnasse; Pierre Ribou, quay des Augustins, a l'image Saint Loüis; Foucault marchand, rüe Saint Honoré, a la regle d'or; Cassone, rüe Aubry-boucher, au Nom de Jesus, pres St. Josse, 1708-1718.

Oblong folio. Contemporary dark tan mottled calf with raised bands on spine in decorative compartments gilt, red leather title label gilt, edges of boards gilt. 1f. (recto title within highly decorative border incorporating floral motifs, verso privilege dated "24e jour de Decembre 1707"), 3-39, 40 (secondary title), 41-68 pp. Engraved throughout.

Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped; endpapers worn. Occasional light marginal soiling and small stains; small dampstain to blank upper inner margin affecting approximately 20 leaves; stains to music on pp. 63 and 68.

Rare issue, possibly unrecorded. Lesure p. 134 (an issue published in Rouen in 1719 by Cassone). Not in Marx (but see p. 179, no. 18, for the 1719 printing by H. Foucault. RISM C3810. OCLC (seven copies, six of which are in the U.S. and one in Switzerland).

A printed note following the privilege, most likely added later, indicates that Massard has ceded her privilege to Cassone. An earlier issue, without this note, may have been published by Massard in ca. 1708, but does not appear to have survived.

"French publishers were slow to capitalize on the success of Corelli's works which had evidently already circulated in manuscript, and from 1687 they had to contend with the easy availability of the Amsterdam editions. Catalogues of Foucault's music shop 'à la règle d'or', which opened in 1692. do not survive, but it was evidently around two decades later that Pierre Ribou and Foucault brought out Corelli's Opp. 2 and 4. Early French editions of his music present the problem (not uncommon in Northern Europe) of lacking a publication date and Pincherle was unduly optimistic in placing the first French engraving of Op. 5 around 1701. Anik Davriès suggests a date of 1710 for Opp. 2 and 4, 1718 for Opp. 1 and 3, and not until 1719 for the edition of Op. 5. According to Sadie, Charlotte Massard de la Tour's edition Op. 5 had preceded this in 1708." Allsop: Arcangelo Corelli: New Orpheus of Our Times, p. 183.

Corelli's music was widely admired and emulated in France, particularly by François Couperin. "Contact with Italian instrumental music may have been made through an involvement with the musical life of the court of the exiled James II in Saint Germain-en-Laye, where things Italian were much prized. There is certainly clear evidence for Couperin’s participation in the music of the Stuart court during the following decade (Corp, 1995). Couperin’s admiration for the Italian style was eventually expressed in overt terms in his Apothéose de Corelli of 1724, but a much earlier ambition, sustained throughout his life, was to unite the complementary strengths of the Italian and French styles." Edward Higginbottom in Grove Music Online

The earliest known French edition of Corelli's highly influential Op. 5 violin sonatas.

An elegantly engraved and printed edition.

Item #39878

Price: $3,000.00  other currencies