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Dance.- Caroso (Fabrizio) Il Ballarino, first edition, Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1581.

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Dance.- Caroso (Fabrizio) Il Ballarino, first edition, 2 parts in 1, collation: A-F4; a-z4, Aa-Zz4, †4, Roman and italic type, title with woodcut printer's device, repeated on separate title introducing part 2, engraved portrait by Giacomo Franco of the author within border including his coat-of-arms, 22 full-page engraved illustrations in text (partially repeated) likewise by Franco, within ornamental borders, woodcut decorated initials, head- and tail-pieces, printed music and lute tablature, occasional light browning, later red morocco by Trautz-Bauzonnet, covers within triple gilt fillets, spine with five raised bands, compartments richly tooled, title lettered in gilt, marbled pastedowns, inner gilt dentelles, g.e., 4to (233 x 172mm.), Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1581.

⁂ A fine copy of the first edition of the most important 16th-century Italian treatise on dancing, and one of the most beautiful dance books ever produced. This copy is of the issue bearing Ziletti's device on the title. Born in Sermoneta, Fabrizio Caroso was a protégé of Felice Maria Orsini Caetani (d. 1596), Duchess of Sermoneta. He spent most of his life in Rome, where he was active as a dancer, 'inventore di scene', dance master, musician and composer. He was the last proponent of the Renaissance Italian dance style, opposing the French danse noble, which had begun to spread across Europe in the last decades of the 15th century. Caroso was not only a practicing dancer, but also a refined theorist, and this work, dedicated to Bianca Capello, provides a vast amount of detail about the dances of the period.

The first part illustrates 55 rules for steps, while the more lengthy second part describes 76 separate dances, including the alta, bassa, balletto, pavan, cascarda, saltarello and spagnoletta. Each dance is supplemented with a poem in praise of a different woman, mostly members of Roman noble families, and includes musical notation for the lute. Each of the dances under discussion is designed for one or more pairs of dancers. Throughout the work, Caroso celebrates the concept of 'nobil vivere', and the figure of the well-educated dancer- courtesan.

The 22 full-page copper engravings are executed by the renowned artist Giacomo Franco and depict the positions of dancers at the beginning of each of the various dances and cumulatively represent a precious iconographic source not only for the history of dance, but also for that of fashion and the culture of the period in general.

Literature: Adams C-755; Mortimer Italian, 106; RISM C, p. 1233; Gregory & Bartlett I, 53; Lipperheide 3055; P. D. Magriel, A Bibliography of Dancing, pp. 42-44; A. Feves, "Fabrizio Caroso and the Changing Shape of the Dance, 1550-1600", Danse Chronicle, 14 (1991), pp. 159-174; P. Gargiulo (ed.), La danza italiana tra Cinque e Seicento. Studi per Fabrizio Caroso da Sermoneta, Roma 1997.

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Dance.- Caroso (Fabrizio) Il Ballarino, first edition, 2 parts in 1, collation: A-F4; a-z4, Aa-Zz4, †4, Roman and italic type, title with woodcut printer's device, repeated on separate title introducing part 2, engraved portrait by Giacomo Franco of the author within border including his coat-of-arms, 22 full-page engraved illustrations in text (partially repeated) likewise by Franco, within ornamental borders, woodcut decorated initials, head- and tail-pieces, printed music and lute tablature, occasional light browning, later red morocco by Trautz-Bauzonnet, covers within triple gilt fillets, spine with five raised bands, compartments richly tooled, title lettered in gilt, marbled pastedowns, inner gilt dentelles, g.e., 4to (233 x 172mm.), Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1581.

⁂ A fine copy of the first edition of the most important 16th-century Italian treatise on dancing, and one of the most beautiful dance books ever produced. This copy is of the issue bearing Ziletti's device on the title. Born in Sermoneta, Fabrizio Caroso was a protégé of Felice Maria Orsini Caetani (d. 1596), Duchess of Sermoneta. He spent most of his life in Rome, where he was active as a dancer, 'inventore di scene', dance master, musician and composer. He was the last proponent of the Renaissance Italian dance style, opposing the French danse noble, which had begun to spread across Europe in the last decades of the 15th century. Caroso was not only a practicing dancer, but also a refined theorist, and this work, dedicated to Bianca Capello, provides a vast amount of detail about the dances of the period.

The first part illustrates 55 rules for steps, while the more lengthy second part describes 76 separate dances, including the alta, bassa, balletto, pavan, cascarda, saltarello and spagnoletta. Each dance is supplemented with a poem in praise of a different woman, mostly members of Roman noble families, and includes musical notation for the lute. Each of the dances under discussion is designed for one or more pairs of dancers. Throughout the work, Caroso celebrates the concept of 'nobil vivere', and the figure of the well-educated dancer- courtesan.

The 22 full-page copper engravings are executed by the renowned artist Giacomo Franco and depict the positions of dancers at the beginning of each of the various dances and cumulatively represent a precious iconographic source not only for the history of dance, but also for that of fashion and the culture of the period in general.

Literature: Adams C-755; Mortimer Italian, 106; RISM C, p. 1233; Gregory & Bartlett I, 53; Lipperheide 3055; P. D. Magriel, A Bibliography of Dancing, pp. 42-44; A. Feves, "Fabrizio Caroso and the Changing Shape of the Dance, 1550-1600", Danse Chronicle, 14 (1991), pp. 159-174; P. Gargiulo (ed.), La danza italiana tra Cinque e Seicento. Studi per Fabrizio Caroso da Sermoneta, Roma 1997.

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