Règlement Pour Les Comédiens Italiens Ordinaires Du Roi.
[Paris], P.-R.-C. Ballard 1781.
8vo (189 x 119 mm.). [iv], 56p. Woodcut French royal arms on the title.
CONTEMPORARY GILT RED MOROCCO BY PIERRE VENTE, TRIPLE-RULE OUTER BORDERS WITH CORNER FLEURS-DE-LYS, GILT ARMS OF LOUIS XVI LETTERED MENUS PLESIRS DU ROY (Olivier-Hermal-Roton 2496,6), all edges gilt, green silk marker.
Formulated in 1780 and 1781, the Rule reveals the inner workings of the late 18th-century theater company in transition from its roots in riotous Italian language entertainment of the 1650s. The company experienced a revival under royal protection in 1716 and had recently become an independent commercial enterprise performing entirely in French. The theater was run by the artists themselves, with three members acting as business managers, called semainiers. The Rule has twelve overarching articles and eighty-eight individual stipulations. These address rehearsals, days and times of performances, selection and vetting of repertoire, roles (for women, for men playing women, for men who refused to play women, for actors’ debuts, for understudies…), endemic malingering, costumes (in the dressing room, in the wings and on stage), decorum when performing and while waiting to go on, moonlighting, breach of contract, personnel substitutions, instrumentalists in the pit, delivery of dancers’ apparel, etc. Violations are detailed and their fines enumerated.
THE WHOLE OF ARTICLE SEVEN CONCERNS AUTHORIAL RIGHTS (15p.). This deals with revenues, royalties, script changes, number of readings, lyrics, musical compositions, manuscript ownership, number of tickets allocated to the author, monies due for various performance thresholds and rights of the author’s heirs.
This copy was bound by Pierre Vente (1722-?93), the exclusive binder for the royal Menus plaisirs that produced all the ancillary luxury goods required by the crown. This copy was likely intended for one of the four noblemen entrusted with oversight of the Comédie-Italienne, an administrative intimate of the king or one of the semainiers. I have not located an example outside Paris. In good condition, bookplate of Edmond (1822-1896) and Jules Goncourt (1830 -1870), scholars of the 18th-century French stage (Bibliothèque…XVIIIe siècle (29.III-3.IV.1897) 487 (this copy)), signature of Edmond, recent exlibris of e.a.
¶Goodman, Goldoni in Paris xiii, 66, 70-73 & 90; Brown, “Règlements royaux et règles du jeu” in Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine 51 (2004) 117-128; Pougin, Dictionnaire historique…du theâtre 202-18 & 223; Bernardin La Comédie italienne en France 12-13 & 225; Ducharte, The Italian Comedy 21-23, 114, 115 & 117; Enciclopedia dello spettacolo III: 1186-1207; Gruel, Manual…de l’amateur de reliures I: 165-167.
Price: $9,500.00