Historical SourcePublic Domain
Livre de la contredance du roy, présenté à Louis XIV (1688), retranscrit pour Louis XV (1721) — André Lorin
Publisher: André Lorin (maître à danser du Roy) — holograph presentation manuscript to Louis XIV, 1688; retranscribed for Louis XV in 1721. Bibliothèque nationale de France (Département des Manuscrits, Gallica BnF). Source: DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1680-Lorin-Contredanse-Majeste_(BNF).txt (924-line ABBYY OCR; degraded from handwritten cursive manuscript). HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: the Rosetta-stone source for the earliest French contredanse, presented as a royal gift to Louis XIV at the height of his personal codification of Court entertainment (1688: six years after Versailles becomes the permanent Court). The 1721 retranscription for Louis XV confirms the pedagogical survival of the early contredanse repertory across the regency period into the mature Rameau/Dezais era (cf. LOC-1725-RAMEAU, LOC-1712-DEZAIS-X → LOC-1719-DEZAIS-XVII). Structure: general instruction (Instruction générale pour toutes les Contredanses; figure-types for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 dancers; colonnes vs. figured contredanses; reverences; transmission from English country-dance via Lorin's London teaching exchange); then collection of named contredanses (Carillon, Cloches, Chaîne, and the titular Contredanse du Roy), each diagrammed with points and lignes. Has_Step_Detail = Partial: named-figure and formation-path notation is present; per-step foot-direction / rise-and-fall / sway / CBM technical vocabulary is not yet established in French dance notation as of 1688 (that system emerges with Beauchamp-Feuillet 1700).Year: 1688Family: lorin-royCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by André Lorin (maître à danser du Roy) — holograph presentation manuscript to Louis XIV, 1688; retranscribed for Louis XV in 1721. Bibliothèque nationale de France (Département des Manuscrits, Gallica BnF). Source: DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1680-Lorin-Contredanse-Majeste_(BNF).txt (924-line ABBYY OCR; degraded from handwritten cursive manuscript). HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: the Rosetta-stone source for the earliest French contredanse, presented as a royal gift to Louis XIV at the height of his personal codification of Court entertainment (1688: six years after Versailles becomes the permanent Court). The 1721 retranscription for Louis XV confirms the pedagogical survival of the early contredanse repertory across the regency period into the mature Rameau/Dezais era (cf. LOC-1725-RAMEAU, LOC-1712-DEZAIS-X → LOC-1719-DEZAIS-XVII). Structure: general instruction (Instruction générale pour toutes les Contredanses; figure-types for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 dancers; colonnes vs. figured contredanses; reverences; transmission from English country-dance via Lorin's London teaching exchange); then collection of named contredanses (Carillon, Cloches, Chaîne, and the titular Contredanse du Roy), each diagrammed with points and lignes. Has_Step_Detail = Partial: named-figure and formation-path notation is present; per-step foot-direction / rise-and-fall / sway / CBM technical vocabulary is not yet established in French dance notation as of 1688 (that system emerges with Beauchamp-Feuillet 1700). (1688). Imported from local collection.