Almanach dansant, ou, Positions et Attitudes de L'Allemande: Avec un discours préliminaire sur l'origine et l'utilité de la danse. Dédié au beau sexe par Guillaume maitre de danse ; pour l'année 1770, ou se trouve Un recueil de contredanse et menuets nouveaux.

Paris: A. P. et A. chez l'auteur ruë des Arcis maison du commissaire, Valade libraire r., 1771. Paris: A. P. et A. chez l'auteur ruë des Arcis maison du commissaire, Valade libraire rue St. Jacques vis a vis celle de la Parcheminerie; [1771].

A reissue of the sheets to the 1770 edition, with pages [17]-[18] canceled being the divisional title page "Recueil de contredanses et menuets nouveaux et choisis", the final number of the date on the title-page covered in ink, and the price information removed from title-page. Twelvemo (6 x 4 inches; 153 x 105 mm). [2], 16, 19-31, [1] pp. With 12 pages of music and 12 colored plates. With two additional leaves bearing the "Almanach d'agenda pour l'année 1771." Printed in red and black pasted to wrappers as endpapers. The Harvard copy notes "letterpress almanac for 1771 inserted following the t.p." Engraved title-page, title within ornamental border, all hand colored. And with 12 engraved color plates, depicting a couple dancing the allemande. These plates were issued both hand- colored and uncolored. An additional 12 pages of engraved dance music by Sauton and Lahante; signed at end: Coulubrier sculp. Also of note, our copy has the pages of music printed out of order. No copy at auction of any edition in over 40 years and less than a handful of of all editions on OCLC.

Bound in newer cream wrappers. Some wear and fraying to page edges. A small red stamp on bottom margin of title-page. Some occasional soiling to plates, generally not affecting image. Traces of glue residue on inner blank margins of a few plates. Music leaves with some dampstaining. Overall a very nice copy.

Referring to the allemande, "When the dance was introduced in Paris, where it became popular in the 1760s and 1770s, it was done quite differently from the German way, at least according to the French dancing master Simon Guillaume. The main interest of the French version lay in a series of joined hand positions through which the partners moved by passing under each other's arms, turning each other around, and passing behind each other's back. The steps to the dance were of secondary importance, judging from the perfunctory manner in which they are treated in French books describing the allemande, and seem to have been subject to some variation.In his Almanach Dansant (1770), Guillaume described two allemande steps out of the several he said existed, the main one in 2/4 time, and another in 3/8." (The International Encyclopedia of Dance).

HBS 68470.

$1,250.