17-Nov / 1 COMMENTS

Two days ago, half an hour before Sinterklaas, Zwarte Piet and their entourage were due to pass through the neighborhood, a friend of mine convinced me to walk into the second hand book store on Piet Heinstraat. I’ve known about this book store for years. I walk by it at least 4 times a week on my way to the post or the supermarket, but never walked in. I think the reason for it is that it looks like a big mess from the outside- like you might walk in and never find your way out kind of mess. This time I was there with a friend and she had a goal, so I went for it.
 
The store was bigger on the inside- Not sure how that’s possible, but it was. Thousands of books looked at me, waiting to be discovered from every corner. For the first 10 minutes I wasn’t sure at which direction to look at. I was quite overwhelmed.
 
Then the most amazing thing happened. I was looking at a shelf close to the entrance with some oldish looking books mingled with some more recent ones. I picked up the smallest and most ragged looking. I couldn’t decipher its name from the cover. I opened it, and there it was, black letters on a yellowish page: “Théâtre complet de Mr. de Voltaire. Le tout revu et corrigé par l’auteur même. Tome 4”. I opened the second page to find its’ title to be: “Dissertation sur la tragédie ancienne et moderne“.
 

 
The heavens were smiling at me with a coincidence. There, in a shop that was close for so long, I was standing for the first time and holding a book that is essential for my work on tragedy and opera performance in the 18th century. I looked at the price- 10 euro, and bought it straight away.
 

 
After watching Sinterklaas arrive, I went home and had a better look at my find. The book was printed in Amsterdam in 1773. The first part of this dissertation is called Des Tragédies Grecques imitées par quelques Opéra Italiens & Français. My mind was blown! I couldn’t believe my luck.
 
Here’s a link to the complete collection on google books >>
The mentioned dissertation begins at page 185. I hope you find it useful, or at least enjoyable.
 
Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂