Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon

[4] Henri Sauval describes the great hall and the chapel (which both still existed at the time he was writing), as the largest and most sumptuous of their kind in Paris.

"Salt was strewed upon the ground which it occupied; the armorial ensigns of the offender were effaced, and the windows and doors that remained were smeared by the executioner with yellow ochre.

It was not difficult to draw a parallel between Tancrède and his knights fighting the monsters of the enchanted forest and Louis XIII and his favorite, Charles d'Albert, 1st Duke of Luynes, rescuing France from its enemies.

[10] According to the livret published by Pierre Ballard in 1617, the opening grand concert de musique was performed by "sixty-four voices, twenty-eight viols, and fourteen lutes conducted by le sieur Mauduit.

[14] La finta pazza, an Italian play by Giulio Strozzi mixed with an opera by Francesco Sacrati was given under the auspices of Cardinal Mazarin in December 1645.

The production employed elaborate stage scenery with set changes and special effects accomplished via theatre machines designed by Giacomo Torelli.

[16] Mazarin's triumph over the Frondeurs and return from exile was celebrated with the Ballet de la Nuit, produced on 23 February 1653 with sets and machinery by Torelli.