Traitté contre les danses

An early example of an antidance treatise, this manual provides a foundation for arguments that continued to the end of the nineteenth century--that dancing is a sin against God. Much of Boiseul's argument is based on biblical examples (chapters and verses are noted in the margins of each page). While acknowledging that dance is mentioned in the Bible, the author is quick to point out that the dances were "joyous and spontaneous" and very different from the seventeenth-century social dances of his day. The courante, branle, and galliard come under specific attack. Additionally, Boiseul makes particularly strong arguments against the dances of non-Christian "savages."