PLAISIRS DE L'ISLE ENCHANTÉE (Les), course de bague, collation ornée de machines, comédie meslée de danse et de musique, ballet du palais d'Alcine, feu d'artifice... et autres festes galantes et magnifiques faites par le roy à Versailles le 7 mai 1664... A Paris, de l'Imprimerie royale, 1673 (1674 at press). In-folio (432 x 284 mm), red morocco, Louvre lace around the boards with a small sun at the corners, arms in the centre, ribbed spine decorated with a crowned numeral repeated several times, gilt edges (Period binding). REMARKABLE DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST OF THE GREAT FESTIVALS GIVEN AT VERSAILLES BY LOUIS XIV, from 7 to 9 May 1664, on a theme taken from Ariosto's Roland Furieux (the magician Alcine holding Roger and his knights prisoner in her palace). The official report of these "fêtes galantes" was not published until 9 years later. Beautiful headband drawn by Chauveau, who had just magnificently illustrated the Paris Carrousel of 1662, and 9 double plates drawn and engraved in intaglio by Israël Silvestre, including the frontispiece with a general view of the Château de Versailles. Three parts corresponding to the three days. The first, the most illustrated (5 plates), is set in the large area created by filling in the pool, with three entrances bearing the arms of France and Navarre. The ring races, the comparse and the feast took place there. The second day, which Louis XIV and the Court attended as spectators, saw the first collaboration between Molière and Lully, with the performance of La Princesse d'Élide (a plate). For the first time in France, theatre and opera, comedy and romance were combined. On the third day, after the Ballet d'Alcine, the magician's palace was set ablaze in a grandiose fireworks display orchestrated by Vigarani (2 plates). The festivities continued over the following days, including the first performance of Tartuffe on 12 May, which the Relation attempts to justify on p. 90 to justify the ban: "In the evening His Majesty had a comedy called Tartuffe performed, which the Sieur de Molière had written against hypocrites; but although it was found highly entertaining, the king... could not bear this resemblance of vice to virtue, which could be mistaken for each other : and although there was no doubt of the author's good intentions, he nevertheless forbade it in public, and deprived himself of this pleasure so as not to allow others, less capable of discerning justly, to abuse it". A VERY FINE COPY IN RED MOROCCO WITH THE ROYAL COAT OF ARMS, IN THE PRESENT BINDING CONTEMPORARY WITH THE EDITION, WITH THE LOUVRE LACE AROUND THE BOARDS. Endpapers in very fine combed paper. Spotting in the margins of the plates, text pages sometimes foxed. Minor damage to upper head cover and top of spine ends, small stain to lower cover, some scuffing. Berlin Katalog, 3001; Ruggieri, 507; S. Castellucio, Les carrousels en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, 2002.