Balletti d'invenzione nella Finta pazza
By: di Giovanbatta Balbi
Contributors: Spada, Valerio, 1613-1688, engraver; Della Bella, Stefano, 1610-1664, ill; Torelli, Giacomo, 1608-1678, set designer; Sacrati, Francesco; Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon (Paris, France); John Milton and Ruth Neils Ward Collection (Harvard Theatre Collection)
Publisher: [s.n.]
Published: 1645
Place of publication: Paris?
Language: fre
Number of pages: 12
Subjects: Ballet; Pictorial works; Festivals; Choreography; Early works to 1800; Operas
Other titles: Finta pazza (Choreographic work : Balbi)
Notes: Plates depict scenes from two of the three ballets (Il ballet des cinges et des ours (6 plates) and Il ballet des indiens et des perroquets (6 plates); lacks the 6 plates from Il ballet des autruches) inserted into the opera, La finta pazza, by F. Sacrati, as it was performed in Paris.

Choreography by G.B. Balbi; scene design by G. Torelli. See M.-F. Christout, Le ballet de cour de Louis XIV.

Engraved title page (leaf [1]) signed: "Valerio Spada fe"; Spada also engraved the plates; original drawings by Stefano della Bella.

The opera was first performed in Venice in 1641, then revised for Piacenza in 1644 and performed in Florence in 1645; later that year (14 December), it was performed with the ballets for nine-year old Louis XIV, at the behest of the queen, at the Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon, Paris. See Grove music online (WWW site, 10 June 2009) and Kierstein, L. Movement & Metaphor (New York, 1790), p. 70-73.

Rahir, Edouard. Bibliothèque de l'amateur, p. 179