Anthologie françoise ou chansons choisies [avec] Chansons Joyeuses

First edition illustrated with 4 engravings by Le Mire after Gravelot and a frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by Saint-Aubin after Cochin. Includes the fourth volume Chansons joyeuses, often missing.
Full brown marbled calf binding, motifs tooled in gilt, morocco title and volume labels, gilt frame on the covers, marbled pastedown and endpapers, marbled edges.
Ex-libris on the endpapers of volumes I, III and IV.
The Airs of the 4^th volume have been bound twice. Some rubbing to the edges, corners very slightly bent, joints a little rubbed, a small wormhole to the spine of volume IV.
The pioneering work Anthologie française depicts the evolution of French song since the 13th century, with the aim of rehabilitating this often disparaged musical style and showing French excellence in the field.
The instigator of this groundbreaking project, Jean Monnet (1703-1785), director of the Opéra-Comique, created the first comprehensive compilation of French chansons across centuries. A genre regarded with condescension by the intellectual elite, the chanson is here restored to its rightful place both by the examples presented, in their textual or musical form, and through the historical memoir written by Meusnier de Querlon (1702-1780), opening the first volume: "The song, in its primitive simplicity, is the expression of a sudden or profound feeling, of a vivid or light sensation, of a more or less strongly conceived image; an expression attached everywhere to certain turns of words, variously measured, or to sounds of any kind”. This definition moves away from the encyclopedic view of song as a mere pastime distraction, to reveal its importance as a sensitive testimony to past eras.
This approach to rehabilitating the genre serves the patriotic aim of creating a heritage of the "Génie chansonnier de la Nation" (the Nation's songwriting genius), as song is an art form combining popular tunes and recognized poets, including Ronsard and his "Mignonne" (p.27 of Volume I).
The particularity and rarity of this set is completed in volume IV, with the humorous pen of chansonnier Charles Collé (1709-1783) and his "Chansons joyeuses, mises au jour par un ane-onyme, onissime". The places of printing, "in Paris, London and Ispahan only", as well as the upside-down date, also provide opportunities for comic tricks on the part of the author, who sets the tone for this final volume filled with bawdy songs: “Les critiques délicats / Ne sont que des Jean-fesses ;/ De mes chans, s'ils ne font pas / Un grand cas ; moi, je m'en bats / Les fesses, les fesses, les fesses.”
A "Nation-pleasing enterprise", this complete Anthologie française is a rare work, a forerunner in the history of chanson, which enabled enthusiasts of the time to discover little-known aspects of this musical and literary genre.