Search results
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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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POLLINI, Francesco.
Preludio cantabile e rondo per piano forte composti e dedicati al sigr W. A. Mozart, figlio … Opera 44.
Milan, Ferdinando Artaria, [1821].
First edition, rare, of a work for solo piano dedicated to Mozart’s youngest son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Born to a Venetian family in Ljubljana, now Slovenia, Pollini (1762–1846) lived in Vienna from 1783 to 1790; he was the dedicatee of two pieces by Mozart and sang the role of Idamante...
£350
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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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AESOP.
[DODSLEY, Robert.] Select Fables of Esop and other Fabulists. In three Books …
Birmingham, Printed by John Baskerville, for R. and J. Dodsley … 1764.
An extremely attractive emblematic binding by Hanway’s second binder, inscribed by Hanway ‘For Master James Ord from his most affectionate Servant & friend / J Hanway / 10 June 1765’, and with a two-page ‘Explanation of the Binding’ in prose and verse:
£3250
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HOFMANNSTHAL, Hugo von.
Die Aegyptische Helena. Oper in zwei Aufzügen.
[Leipzig, Mainzer Presse for Insel-Verlag, 1928.]
First edition of Hofmannsthal’s text for Richard Strauss’s opera – Hofmannsthal himself considered it to be his finest libretto. The opera was first performed on 6 June 1928 in Dresden, five weeks before Hofmannsthal’s death. The plot is a free adaptation of Euripides’ Helena, which introduces...
£750
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CHEVALIER, André-Joseph, professor; A.J. BERENTS, compiler.
‘Tractatus De Fide, Spe et Charitate Dictatus ab...
[Douai, 9 March – 4 August] 1787.
A manuscript treatise concerning the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity as expounded in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, compiled by a student at the University of Douai from lectures by André-Joseph Chevalier.
£375
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[FORZONI, Stefano.]
Metodo facile trovato coll’esperienza di piu’ anni utilissimo per difendere i grani dalla Volpe, o sia...
Florence, nella stamperia Bonducciana, 1772.
First and only edition of this rare treatise on the mitigation of volpe, a blight affecting up to half of Tuscan grain harvests of 1772, by a member of the agriculturally minded Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence.
£275
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HOMER; Alexander POPE, translator.
The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Alexander Pope, Esq. To which is added, The...
London, Baynes & Son (and others) [upper cover: ‘Printed for The Proprietors of the English Classics, by J. F. Dove, St. John’s Square’],...
Pocket-sized edition of Pope’s translations of the Odyssey and the Batrachomyomachia, with a fine frontispiece and additional title engraved by Charles Rolls; a very well-preserved copy in the original printed boards.
£125
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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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ANSWER OF THE MERCHANTS-PETITIONERS,
and Trustees for the Factory at Legorn, to the Account of Damages, laid to the Charge of the...
London: Printed in the Year 1704.
First and only edition, scarce, part of a fascinating trade (and piracy) dispute involving English merchants in Livorno (or Leghorn), which brought England and Tuscany to the brink of war in 1704.
£1350
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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
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SMITH, Albert.
Marguerite de Bourgogne. A Tradition of ancient Paris …
London: Richard Bentley … 1845.
First separate edition, printed for private circulation and very rare, comprising a portion (though complete in itself) of Smith’s three-decker The Adventures [or Fortunes] of the Scattergood Family (1845), with a new half-title and title-page.
£500
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[HALE, Thomas, Sir William PETTY, and Samuel PEPYS?].
An Account of several new Inventions and Improvements now necessary for England,...
London, Printed for James Atwood, and are to be sold by Ralph Simpson … 1691.
First edition of Hale’s Account with several rare broadsides on the same topic – the use of milled lead (rather than cast lead, or even wood) for the sheathing of ships as a defence against worm. Thomas Hale operated a lead mill in Deptford (his brother? Charles was a leadworker) and was a...
£2750