78

The writing of dedication epistles for musical pieces was an inescapable reality in the musical life of the Enlightenment and it was the most noticeable side of aristocratic musical patronage. Although this rather abundant corpus has been neglected, even despised for a long time, it represents a great source of social and cultural history. Not only does the analysis of late eighteenth-century dedications contradict the image of a rigid and declining use but, on the contrary, it shows a vigorous practice which adapted itself to the style of the day. This serial study brings together various historical fields, moving from sociological analyses of the Parisian musical world to the evolution in musical tendencies and tastes to the instrumentalization of musical creation by aristocrats who were also courtiers.