Boucherie, Jean-Joseph
- Marie Cornaz
Extract
(d Brussels, May 4, 1776). Flemish bookseller and music printer. He was the principal music seller in Brussels from 1745 to 1770. As the official printer for the Théâtre de la Monnaie he printed librettos for opéras-comiques and comédies mêlées d’ariettes performed there by composers such as Duni, Monsigny, and Philidor, some with a musical supplement. His publications were covered at first by a privilege of impression and sale (1757–66) which applied only to works that had not yet been staged at Brussels, and then by another (1767) which allowed Boucherie to print and sell all theatre works. Under this later privilege, he forged Parisian editions (such as Toinon et Toinette by Gossec, with the false address ‘Paris, Veuve Duchesne’). He was also involved in the production of two engraved editions of the works of C.-J. van Helmont. Boucherie was the Brussels distributor for Benoît Andrez of Liège, as well as of a large number of essentially Parisian editions of instrumental music, opera librettos, and music journals....
