Biosca Anton (2 results)

Encuadernación de tapa blanda. Condition: Nuevo. 2ª Edición. Varios autores.

Dust Jacket Condition: dj. Illustrated with several choreographic diagrams. (illustrator). Illustrated with several choreographic diagrams. First edition. With a printed copyright statement on the verso of the title-page, declaring that only copies bearing the author's signature are authorized; this copy signed by the author as issued. In later marbled paper wrappers preserving the publisher's original blue printed covers: the front features the title and imprint along with a woodcut vignette of a dancing putto wreathed in floral garlands; the rear advertises the book's availability at booksellers across Spain. 100 pp, and an engraved frontispiece, and a folding plate "Tabula ultima de los signos" at the end. A key early source for contradanza in Romantic Spain, and one of the principal Spanish works on 19th-century dance, noted for its simplified choreographic notation. First edition of one of the most significant Spanish dance manuals of the early 19th century, authored by the Catalan dance master Antoni Biosca (1801-1865). A central figure in Barcelona's romantic dance culture, Biosca directed one of the city's dance academies. He was noted not only for his pedagogy but also for choreographic invention-particularly a now-lost dance of his own creation titled Los cazadores. Biosca's Arte de danzar is a practical manual structured around five tandas (dance suites), each comprising multiple choreographed figures derived from French contradance tradition-known in Spain as rigodones. It was conceived not as a general treatise on dance technique, but as a focused guide for amateur dancers to execute fashionable salon dances with precision. The work is particularly valuable for its simplified choréographic notation system, which replaces the more elaborate Beauchamp-Feuillet signs with numerical and graphic cues: odd numbers denote male dancers, even numbers females; paths of movement are marked by lines and dotted strokes; arrows and position markers define direction, footwork, and timing. Figures such as El Verano, La Pastoral, La Estrella, and El Wals Cortés are illustrated with clear floorplans and accompanied by musical time signatures and verbal cues, enabling social dancers to reconstruct complex group patterns and step sequences. Biosca's manual stands alongside Antonio Cairón's Compendio de las principales reglas del baile (Madrid, 1820) as one of the two principal Spanish contributions to 19th-century dance pedagogy, and remains an important source for the study of choreographic practice, urban leisure, and Franco-Spanish cultural exchange in early 19th-century Spain. Scarce on the market: no sales recorded by Rare Book Hub. WorldCat locates only six institutional copies worldwide. References: Biblioteca Nacional de España. De la gallarda al vals: La danza en los libros antiguos. Exhibition catalogue, 6 October 2011 - 15 January 2012. Madrid: BNE, 2011. . Wrappers slightly worn; internally clean and firm. A well-preserved copy in very good condition overall. In later marbled paper wrappers preserving the publisher?s original blue printed covers: the front features the title and imprint along with a woodcut vignette of a dancing putto wreathed in floral garlands; the rear advertises the book?s availability at booksellers across Spain First edition. With a printed copyright statement on the verso of the title-page, declaring that only copies bearing the author?s signature are authorized; this copy signed by the author as issued. Signed.