Le Parnasse François, Dedié au Roi par M. Titon du Tillet, Commissaire Provincial des Guerres, ci-devant Capitaine de Dragons, & Maître-d'Hôtel de seue Madame La Dauphine, Mere du Roi ... Avec Approbation et Privilege du Roi
Paris: Jean-Baptiste Coignard Fils, Imprimeur du Roi, 1732 [1743].
Large folio. Full dark brown mottled calf with triple rule gilt to edges, raised bands on spine in decorative compartments gilt, dark red leather label to spine gilt, red speckled edges, marbled endpapers; red silk ribbon marker.
1f. (recto blank, verso bust-length portrait engraving of the author by Petit after Largilliere), 1f. (recto half-title, verso blank), 1f. (recto blank, verso full-page frontispiece engraved by Tardieu), 1f. (recto title with engraved vignette by Baquoit after A. Humblot), verso blank), [iii] (dedication), [i] ("Table des Principaux Articles contenus dans ce volume"), 672, 1f. (recto "Suite du Parnasse François, Jusqu'en 1743. Et de quelques autres Piéces qui ont rapport à ce Monument," verso blank), 673-832 pp., 1f. (recto "Remarques sur La Poësie et la Musique ...," verso blank), [iii]-xxviii, [xxix] ("Remarques sur la Poesie et La Musique Francoises et sur nos Spectacles")-liv, lv-lxxi, next 13 pp. unpaginated, lxxxi-xcii ("Liste des Poëtes et des Musiciens") pp., 1f. ("Les Chronologique des Poëtes et des Musiciens Contenus dans le Supplement ... jusqu'en cette année 1743"), xciii ("Additions" and errata), [i] (Approbation and Privilege) pp.
A presentation copy from the author, with autograph inscription to noted French poet and playwright Gilles de Caux de Montlebert (1682-1733): "Donné par l'auteur a Monsieur de Caux" to blank preliminary leaf.
Minor corrections to 8 pages in contemporary manuscript: p. 16 (the addition of a name); 17 (the deletion of a word); 263 (a correction to the number of books referenced); 302 (a correction to a relationship to the Cardinal); 515 ( a correction of a date from April to August 1681); 564 (a correction to a title); and lxxxv (the addition of a name and a note to foot of page).
The highly attractive frontispiece depicts Louis XIV as Apollo, "seated at the summit of Parnassus, with the finest French musicians and men of letters of the time gathered around him."
With fine large engraved headpieces to Dedication, Discours," "Description, and "Seconde" and "Troiseme Partie de la Description;" "Remarques," by Crepy, Mathey, Baquoy, etc., and with occasional decorative initials and woodcut head- and tailpieces.
With 12 fine full-page engraved portraits of Racan, Moliere, Henriette de Coligny, Corneille, Lully, Loullier, Antoinette de la Garde, La Fontaine, Racine, Jean-Renaud de Segrais, Madelaine de Scudery, and Nicolas Boildeau Despreaux by E. Desrochers.
Also with engravings of medallions by Crepy (both recto and verso) depicting portraits of composers and poets including Quinault, Benserade, Marais, Lalande, Rousseau, Campra, de la Guerre and Destouches on 12 plates bound between pp. 32 and 33.
Binding somewhat worn, rubbed, and bumped, with some small holes and abrasions; joints partially cracked; endpapers worn and slightly defective. Very minor occasional signs of wear, creasing, browning, foxing, dampstaining, and soiling; archival tape repair to blank lower margin of p. 254; small paper imperfection to blank lower margin of pp. 259/260; four instances of mispagination following p. 745; pp. 77/78 blank; ribbon marker worn and soiled at foot.
An attractive crisp and wide-margined copy, in very good condition overall.
Second edition, complete with the first supplement, 1733-1743.
See Cortot p. 191 (with 13 portrait plates). Gaspari I, 124. Hirsch I, 579 (with 13 portrait plates). Wolffheim I, 411. Wood: Music in Harvard Libraries, 1500. RISM Écrit Imprimés p. 834.
This monumental volume gained considerable recognition, with supplements published in 1743, 1755, and 1760. In addition to the over 280 biographical articles on many leading composers (Lully, Lalande, Marais, and the Couperin family), musicians, librettists (Quinault and others), and poets (including Corneille), with lists of their works, the author included a list of the finest instrumentalists as an 'orchestre du Parnasse' and a similar list of singers.
The rare 1743 supplement, "Suite du Parnasse françois," updates the work to that year, with articles on Bernier, Dandrieu, Desmarets, Monteclair, Polignac, Rousseau, Senaillie, and others.
The two essays, "Remarques sur la poesie et la musique et sur l'excellence de ces beaux arts" and "Remarques sur la poesie et la musique francoises, et sur nos spectacles," are also of considerable interest, the latter being an historical survey tracing the development of music and poetry in France from AD 450.
"[Titon du Tillet] made his way at court as the mâitre d'hôtel to the Duchess of Burgundy. After her death in 1712 he sought the favour of Louis XIV and then Louis XV by drawing up plans for a monument in Paris: an 18-metre ‘Parnasse François’, surmounted by a statue of Apollo and surrounded by statues and medallions of the most distinguished poets and musicians of the Louis XIV era with the names of still others inscribed on scrolls. He devoted much of his time to the promotion of this grand projet, commissioning in 1708 a scale model in bronze sculpted by Louis Garnier, painted and engraved interpretations and medallions together with a series of supporting literature that he wrote himself. The first volume to appear was the Description du Parnasse François (1727), which included seven biographical entries on musicians that he rewrote for the greatly augmented 1732 volume, Le Parnasse François. ...
Although Titon's scheme ultimately came to nothing, he is important for the anecdotes he published in Le Parnasse François, which form the basis for many of our impressions of musicians of the era." Julie Ann Sadie in Grove Music Online
An interesting association copy, having been presented by the author to contemporary playwright de Caux, whose printed biography appears on pp. 695-696 of the work, with manuscript corrections possibly in his hand.
A fundamental source on French Baroque music and drama.
Item #41577
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