More by accident than design, the publication of this Compendium coincides with the 250th anniversary of Jean-Philippe Rameau's death in 1764. For all that such commemorations have their uses in focusing a spotlight on the individual concerned, there is nevertheless no need to justify the present project on those grounds alone. Interest in Rameau has increased enormously during the past fifty years. His operas are no longer regarded as peripheral by performers but are increasingly staged in the world's major opera houses and festivals. His keyboard and other chamber music has established itself in the mainstream of the French Baroque repertory, while the stature of his activity as a music theorist continues to grow as the extraordinary sophistication of his achievement in this sphere is more widely recognized. These welcome developments have gone hand in hand with a huge increase in the amount of scholarly research on Rameau and his period. Archival studies have added ‘new’ facts to his biography, lost works have come to light, and there is scarcely an aspect of his multifarious activity as composer, theorist, teacher or performer that has not benefited from closer scrutiny and reassessment. Even so, the sheer quantity and diversity of recent research can sometimes appear daunting. While a substantial proportion of such work has been published in English, much of it appears in French or other languages, and some material is not readily accessible.