The story of Rinaldo and Armida, where love conflicts with duty, magic plays a role, and morality wins the day, lends itself to being dramatised, and a number of librettists adapted it for the stage in the 17th and 18th centuries. In France, where the ballet de cour was the prime dramatic entertainment, the earliest adaptation of Tasso for the theatre was the Ballet du Roy danced by Louis XIII and his courtiers in the Salle du Louvre on Sunday, 29 Janary 1617. The fifteen-year-old King chose the subject from several proposed to him by Etienne Durand, the designer placed in charge of the occasion. La Delivrance de Renaud. The present publication is dedicated entirely to the study of a single ballet de cour. Its centrepiece is a modern edition of the complete livret, compiled by Etienne Durand, his Discours au vray du ballet danse par le Roy, le dimanche XXIXe jour de janvier 1617, avec les desseins, tant des machines et apparences differentes, que de tous les habits des Masques (Paris, Ballard, 1617) In the first group of articles we look at the kind of historical evidence provided by the main sources for the ballet de cour, the Vers and the livret, and the noble participants are introduced; the second group deals with the sources of inspiration for the ballet; in the third group, we consider the music of our ballet; the fourth group deals with the scenography and other visual aspects of the performance; at the end, the last group of articles is dedicated to the dance.