Modèle parisien contre influence florentine L’illustration des livres de fête français du Ballet des Polonais (1573) à Mirame (1641)

This essay sheds light on the use and function of the image in the Valois’ and Bourbon’s festival books, especially those published for the Ballet des Polonais by Dorat in 1573, the Ballet comique de la Reine by Beaujoyeulx in 1582 and the Délivrance de Renaud by Étienne Durand in 1617. This essay aims at showing the unity of such publications, the iconographic invention and composition in the book : printers and engravers prefer details rather than larger view and link firmly images, text and musical scores so that the iconography can convey an allegorical meaning, either political, aesthetic or philosophical. When in 1641 the printer Henry Le Gras publishes Mirame with engravings by Stefano della Bella, to commemorate the opening of Richelieu’s Palais Cardinal, this book turns away from this Parisian tradition of festival books and adopts a new way of publishing festivals invented in Florence by the Medici court. This choice of an Italian model is a paradoxical outcome of a national cultural policy.