Gregorio Lambranzi was an Italian dancing master, working in Venice in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His New and Curious School of Theatrical Dancing, originally published in two parts in Nuremberg in 1716, gives details of more than one hundred theatrical dances of the time, with the emphasis on the comic and grotesque, many drawn from Commedia dellarte characters. Also included are dances suggested by various professions and trades, and dances representing sports and pastimes.

Each dance is illustrated by a full page engraving by Johann Georg Puschner and accompanied by a melody...