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SHEPHERD, Richard Herne.
Forgotten Books worth remembering … No. I. Studies of Sensation and Event by Ebenezer Jones …
London, Pickering & Co … 1878.
An interesting collection of ‘rare tracts’, from the library of the Scottish lawyer and journalist John Skelton, who wrote for Blackwood’s under the pseudonym ‘Shirley’.
£950
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BLANKENBURG, Quirinus Gerbrandszoon van.
Elementa musica of niew licht tot het welverstaan van de musiec en de bas-continuo. Door...
The Hague, Laurens Berkoske, 1739.
First edition, very scarce.
£1500
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CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.
Manuscript score ‘VI Duetti Madrigaleschi’.
[Italian, late eighteenth century?]
A collection of six madrigals for two voices, comprising ‘La Moglie gelosa’, ‘Il Pellegrino’, ‘Il Vanegio’, ‘L’ambizio indigente’, ‘Il Pazzo inamorato’, ‘Il Maestro di Cappella che compone alla Mosaica’.
£850
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FABRIZI, Pietro.
Regole generali di canto fermo raccolte da diversi autori … in questa quarta impresione corrette, & ampliate.
Rome, Mascardi, 1708.
‘Fourth’ edition of a small practical manual of plain-chant, with examples, first published in 1651. Fabrizi, a Florentine about whom little is known, was maestro di capella at Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome. The treatise was referred to by Bononcini in his Musico pratico; a ‘third...
£500
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[FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.]
Psalms, Hymns & Anthems used in the Chapel of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of exposed &...
[London], 1774 [but c. 1780?]
The Foundling Hospital was established by Thomas Coram in 1739 as Britain’s first charity for the care of orphaned or abandoned children. ‘The Hospital chapel, in use by 1749 and officially opened in 1753, soon became well known for its music as well as for its elegant architecture and adornments’...
£750
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FREZZA DALLE GROTTE, Gioseppe.
Il Cantore ecclesiastico breve, facile, ed essatta notizia del canto fermo per istruzzione de’...
Padua, Stamperia del Seminario (Giovanni Manetti), 1698.
First edition of an uncommon plainchant manual published for the use of the Minorites (Conventual Franciscans). The two striking woodcuts depict a book of plainchant on a cantor’s lectern, and the famous Guidonian hand, a medieval mnemonic device to assist with sight-singing.
£1250
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GREENE, Maurice.
Forty select Anthems in Score composed for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Voices … Volume first [– second].
London. J. Walsh, 1743.
First edition. Greene was organist and composer to the Chapels Royal, and an admirer and sometime friend of Handel (their friendship expiring on the occasion of Handel’s quarrel with Buononcini). Forty Select Anthems, setting Psalms and other Biblical texts, is ‘the work on which his...
£850
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[MAGDALEN CHAPEL.]
The Hymns, Anthems & Tunes with the Ode used at the Magdalen Chapel set for the Organ, Harpsichord, Voice, German-Flute,...
London, Printed for C. and S. Thompson … [1770?]
First edition thus, very rare, of this Magdalen Chapel Hymnbook, with a total of thirty-eight tunes: twenty-four hymns, three anthems, nine psalms, ‘The Wish’ and ‘The Ode’.
£1750
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MALCOLM, Alexander.
A Treatise of Musick, speculative, practical and historical. Containing an explication of the philosophical...
London, J. Osborn and T. Longman, F. Fayram, and E. Symon, 1730.
First London edition of the first history of music in English by a British author; it is a reissue of the Edinburgh-printed first edition of 1721 with a cancel title-page and the dedication removed.
£1100
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[ADOLPHUS, Prince, later Duke of Cambridge.]
Manuscript collection of fifty-four songs in Italian, French and German.
[Hanover?, 1796.]
The seventh son of George III and Queen Charlotte, Prince Adolphus (1774–1850), was born in London, but in 1786 was sent alongside his two brothers Ernest and Augustus to be educated in Göttingen, then followed a military career, with successive positions in both the Hanoverian and the British armies....
£2850
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[MENESTRIER, Claude François.]
Des representations en musique anciennes et modernes.
Paris, René Guignard, 1681.
First edition. A Jesuit professor at Lyons and later Paris, Menestrier developed ‘a special interest in the history and organization of public festivals and ceremonies’. He devised ballets for the visit of Louis XIV to Lyons in 1658 and published a series of works on the subject. ‘The four...
£600
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MOZART, et al.
A volume of twelve piano duets adapted from overtures by Mozart, Rossini, and others by J. F. Burrowes, J. Mazzinghi,...
London, mostly Birchall & Co., 1810s–1820s.
A good collection of late Georgian piano duets, including adaptations from The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, along with a few original compostions by Dussek, Mazzinghi, etc. A full list is available...
£350
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RECUEIL DE QUADRILLES
pour le Piano.
[France, 1840s?]
A delightful album, evidently produced as a gift, collecting 17 popular dances arranged for the piano, each with a different decorative title-page. Composers whose work is featured include Philippe Musard (1792–1859), one of the most famous musicians in Europe in the 1830s and ’40s, ‘the doyen...
£850
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PLAYFORD, John.
Psalms & Hymns in solemn Musick of foure Parts on the common Tunes to the Psalms in Metre: used in Parish-Churches....
London, Printed by W. Godbid for J. Playford, at his Shop … 1671.
First edition of the first harmonised Psalter after the Restoration, a landmark work in the re-introduction of part-singing into churches.
£1850
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[PRELLEUR, Peter.]
The Compleat Tutor for the Harpsichord or Spinnet wherein is shewn the Italian Manner of Fingering with suits...
London, Peter Thompson, musical instrument maker [1755?]
First edition thus?, an abridgment of part 6 of Prelleur’s Modern Musick-Master (1731) but with different musical examples. The examples, printed on pp. 5–32, include popular tunes and dances alongside pieces adapted from Handel and Corelli.
£1250
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RINUCCINI, Ottavio.
La Dafne, nuovamente stampata in occasione delle felicissime nozze del signor marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini,...
Florence, Borgognissanti, 1810.
Scarce edition of Rinuccini’s Dafne, the first printed opera libretto; a rare survival preserved unbound in folded sheets.
£650
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[SWEDENBORG, Emanuel.]
De nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelesti: ex Auditis e Coelo. Quibus praemittitur aliquid de Novo...
London, [John Lewis,] 1758.
First edition of Swedenborg’s ‘New Jerusalem’, in which he describes a new church based on faith, charity, and the unification of existing protestant churches.
£975
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[CHOIRBOOK.]
Large historiated initial ‘I’.
Italy (Umbria), c. 1300.
A very elegant initial in a style characteristic of Umbrian illumination of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It can be compared to the oeuvres of the First Master of the Gubbio Choir Books and the Master of the Deruta-Salerno Missals, the latter named after two Missals made...
£4500
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[ANTIPHONAL.]
Antiphonal, with neumes, containing music for the blessing of the Paschal Candle on Holy Saturday.
Southern Germany or Bohemia, mid-fifteenth century.
An unusual and striking antiphonal leaf written entirely in red and notated entirely in burnished gold, signalling the importance of the text for Holy Saturday.
£4250
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BEATTIE, James.
Original Poems and Translations.
London: Printed [by F. Douglas, Aberdeen?]; and sold by A. Millar, 1760.
First edition of Beattie’s first collection. It is always described as his first book, but it is in fact preceded by an unique Elegy on Mrs Walker (1759), discovered by us in 1991 and now in the National Library of Scotland (but still not listed by ESTC).
£450