Gratie d'amore

Cesare Negri

Originally published as Le gratie d'amore in 1602, this manual is considered one of the most valuable and diverse primary sources on Italian court dance. Divided into three parts, the first part illuminates the career and students of dancing master Cesare Negri (ca. 1536-ca. 1604; also known as Il Trombone); the second is devoted to the era's most virtuosic dance type, the galliard; and the third section details a wide repertory of additional steps utilized in the treatise's forty-three choreographies. Many of the choreographies are preceded by full-page illustrations and each dance is provided with appropriate music written in Italian lute tablature and/or mensural notation.