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CHANSONNIER -- Recueil des airs écrit à la main (title taken from spine). [France, second quarter 17 t h century].
CHANSONNIER -- Recueil des airs écrit à la main (title taken from spine). [France, second quarter 17 t h century]. 265 x 200 mm. CALLIGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. 30 leaves (28 folia and one bifolium), written and drawn on flesh sides only. Dedication sonnet in an upright hand with ornamental initial I and calligraphic swirls on four sides, 16 airs and songs in a cursive hand with musical notation and calligraphic flourishes, 12 CALLIGRAPHIC DRAWINGS in pen-and-ink, all full-page, one double-page (on bifolium). ORIGINAL CALLIGRAPHIC BINDING: contemporary vellum over pasteboard, dentelle border of silver, green and yellow silk embroidery stapled to the sides, large center panel of FINELY CUT-OUT VELLUM on a green silk ground, each cover showing a half-length portrait of a richly dressed and coiffed lady with elaborate feather hat, five-line manuscript title on spine (mostly faded), original endpapers with foolscap watermark and countermarked with initials PR, (binding somewhat soiled, border thread slightly damaged or detached in four places, but A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL). Provenance : Vienna, Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1878-1942) and his wife Clarice Sebag-Montefiore (1894-1967) -- Martin Breslauer, London booksellers, catalogue 71 (1950), no. 21, frontispiece reproduction of the front cover -- Emil Offenbacher, sold to Hauck in June 1950 ($1,250). The donor, calligrapher and dedicatee/recipient of this EXCEPTIONAL FRENCH SONGBOOK remain anonymous, but several poets and composers can be identified. The name of the beloved in the first line of the opening sonnet has been erased and replaced. Baroque manuscript songbooks, with calligraphy and drawing of high artistic quality, are EXTREMELY RARE on the market. Fol. 1v: drawing of a couple, she playing the lute Fol. 2r: dedication poem [by François de Malherbe (1555-1628)], incipit: Il n'est rien de beau comme Marie [Caliste ] est belle . Sonnet Fol. 3v: half-length portrait of a lady, looking right Fol. 4r: Air , incipit: Philis quel destin dois-je suivre .Two stanzas, three staves Fol. 5v: portrait of a lady, looking right Fol. 6r: Air [by Germain Habert, abbé de Cérisy, original occupant of seat 12 at the Académie française 1634 (d. 1654)], incipit: Me veux tu voir mourir trop aymable inhumaine . Two stanzas, three staves Fol. 7v: Air [F. Lachèvre, Bibliographies des recueils collectifs de poésies publiés de 1597-1700 II, p. 631], incipit: Source des plus aymables charmes, Qu'ait jamais admiré la cour . Two stanzas, three staves Fol. 8r: portrait of a lady, looking left Fol. 9v: oval portrait of a lady, looking right Fol. 10r: Air , incipit: Que je dois bien faire pitié de souffrir les rigueurs d'un sort si tiranique . Two stanzas, three staves Fol. 11v: Air , incipit: Ne venez plus m'entretenir pensers qui dans mon souvenir . Two stanzas, three staves Fol. 12r: Air [composers: Pierre Guédron (c.1565-c.1620) and/or Jean-Baptiste Besard (c.1567-c.1617)], incipit: Adieu bergère pour jamais je cognois vostre humeur volage . Three stanzas, three staves Fol. 13v: Chanson pour boire , incipit: Amis que ce concert est doux puisque les Dames comme nous . Drinking song, four stanzas, two staves Fol. 14r: oval portrait of a lady, looking left Fol. 15v: drawing of Scaramouche raising a drinking glass Fol. 16r: Dialogue pour boire [Lachèvre III, p. 712], incipit: Quel bruict sous ce tombeau? L'ame d'un buveur d'eau . Drinking song, five stanzas, two staves Fol. 17v: Chanson pour boire , incipit: Museaux enluminez, chers enfants de la treille . Drinking song, three stanzas, two staves Fol. 18r: Chanson pour boire , incipit: Courage amis, le Dieu Bacchus nous promet des Merveilles . Drinking song, four stanzas, two staves Fol. 19v: Chanson pour dancer , incipit: Quand je voy vostre embonpoint . Dance, five stanzas, two staves Fol. 20r: drawing of a dancing girl, three-quarter-length, with castanets Fol. 21v: drawing of two mountebanks, male and female, offering song-sheets