Bellérophon Fact Sheet

Bellérophon Plot Summary

Bellérophon Performance History

title page

Full score: 2° in 4s: ² A-2P⁴ 2Q². Numbered folios. P2, 1-106, 110 [i.e.107], 108-120, 122, 121, 123, 125 [i.e.124; corrected in pencil], 126-149, 15 [i.e.150], 151-254. 9-1/2 X 14-1/2 inches.

M1500 .L95 B4

Bellérophon was the first of Jean-Baptiste Lully's tragédie lyriques to be printed, perhaps because of the enormous popularity of the work. The first edition was printed by Ballard in 1679 not long after the premiere. The volume in the Lully Collection is a first edition with the Christophe Ballard printing mark on the title page.

condition: This volume has seen very cavalier treatment, and is the most fragile of the books in the Lully Collection. The binding is a contemporary full calf with a panelled spine. The leather has fallen off the spine, revealing the padding. The paste-down endpapers have come loose from the cover, revealing binding stiffeners cut from an earlier vellum manuscript (apparent business transactions recorded in an elegant court hand, probably 16th century). Water damage, mildew, some foxing, damaged corner (dropped in water?), mold, termites, vermin damage (mice? roaches?).

provenance: This volume was purchased from Orlinde in 1963 for $60 by Isaac Lloyd Hibberd, a faculty member at North Texas State University. The name "Louise Morel" is handwritten on the title page in a contemporary hand.

All graphics in the volumes in the Lully Collection are listed in the Graphics Catalog.

RISM A/I, L2974