Château de Versailles Magazine

This is the first issue of a magazine dedicated to the chateau de Versailles and its history. It is possible to order it from the publisher's site.

Isis & Atys

A word about two books released recently, the english translation and adaptation of two librettos by Philippe Quinault (1635-1688) : Isis and Atys.
The translator is Frank J. Morlock who also translated many other French plays. All the books are available on Amazon. Have a look at them and you'll be amazed at the authors, the themes, and at the wealth of French plays now available in English thanks to Frank and his publishers.

Château de Versailles, Three Centuries of Music

The new issue of Classica puts the focus on the musical history of the chateau de Versailles. The main article, "A l'écoute de Versailles" (Listening to Versailles), by Philippe Venturini, takes the readers on a musical tour in chateau de Versailles, describing the habits and tastes of the royal residents, and where, in the chateau, the various concerts and musical events took place along the years.
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"Visite guidée.Versailles.Trois siècles de Musique", Classica, n°123, June 2010.

(The older issues of many French magazines are now available for download from a website called Relay.com. Here is the Classica page. It's a payed service. As I never tried it, I can't tell whether it's OK, safe, etc. I'm just passing on the information. )

Philippe Quinault - Publications & News

Philippe Quinault

Philippe Quinault was a dramatist who composed libretti for Jean-Baptiste Lully's works. Together, they created the French opera, established the genre and led it to its highest expression.
Two books dedicated to Philippe Quinault have been released this year. The first one, by William Brooks in January and the second one by Buford Norman in June.

- BROOKS, William, Philippe Quinault, Dramatist, Oxford, Bern / Berlin / Bruxelles / Frankfurt am Main / New York / Wien, Peter Lang (Medieval and Early Modern French Studies), 2009, 512 p.
ISBN 9783039115334

- NORMAN Buford, Quinault, librettiste de Lully - Le Poète des Grâces, CMBV-Mardaga, 2009, 383 p.
ISBN 9782870099957
This is the French translation, completed and updated, of Touched by the Graces: The Libretti of Philippe Quinault in the Context of French Classicism), published by Summa Publications, 2001.

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There is also a NEW WEBSITE dedicated to Quinault by Buford Norman. You can find it here, and it's in French.
If you can't read French but are interested in the French Parnassus monument, you'll find a picture of the Quinault medallion by Simon Curé.

Fashion in Detail

Good piece of news ! They reissued Fashion in Detail, a wonderful book on the 17th & 18th-century costumes which gives the opportunity to have a close-up look at the details of several historical costumes from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The pictures are beautiful and completed by very informative explanations on the techniques, fabrics and fashion of the time.
It's an amazing journey into the past, and a great resource for anyone interested in fashion, historical costumes or decorative arts and crafts.

Avril Hart and Susan North
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Fashion in Detail
V&A Publishing, 2009, 223p.

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First published by V&A publications, 1998, as Historical Fashion in detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries.
First published in North America by Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 1998, as Fashion in Detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries.