Originally published in 1762 and reissued in 1765, this work borrows heavily from previously published materials, including the works of Locke, Goldini, and especially John Weaver's 1712 An Essay towards a history of dancing. Gallini (1728-1805) presents a history of dance, arguments for learning the art of dance, and a discourse on the minuet. Especialy interesting are Gallini's comments on European and non-European dance, and discussion includes practices in Britain, Spain, Naples, the peasants of Tirol, Russia, Turkey, China, Africa, and the Americas.

Although much of the material in this manual is borrowed from the dance writings of Charles Durang, it remains an important source for the study of mid-nineteenth-century ballroom dance. Unlike other contemporary writers, Ferrero devotes more than eighty pages to the origins of dance and a history of European and Native American dance. The remaining part of the manual concerns ballroom etiquette and descriptions of numerous dances including the quadrille, waltz, polka, schottisch, varsovienne, polka mazurka, and galop. Ferrero gives directions for more than eighty figures of the cotillon, a group dance performed as a series of party games. Some of the figures include "The scarf," "The glass of wine," "The sea during a storm," "The four chairs," and "The rounds thwarted." The manual concludes with music for twenty-three dances.