[12] Sonate A Violino solo e Basso dedicate A l'Eminmo. e Reverendmo. Signor Cardinale Otthoboni, Vice-Cancelliere della S.R.C. e Protettore di Francia ... Opera Quinta ... Le prix en blanc est de 8tt.10. Avec Privilege du Roy. Berey Sculpsit. [Op. 5]. [Score]

Parigi: Foucault, 1714. 1f. (recto title, verso dedication), 58, [i] (blank), [i] (Privilege du Roy dated April 24, 1714) pp. With catalogue to foot of last page of music listing Mascitti's opp. 1-5, "De Baussen Sculpsit" to lower right corner. Notated on two staves: solo violin and figured bass. First Edition, first issue. Lesure p. 422. Hirsch III, 391. RISM M1230 (two later issues from 1731 and 1740).

Bound with:
Sonate a Violino solo e Basso ... Opera Sesta. Ce Sixiéme Livre renferme quinze Sonates. La derniere est à trois parties dont la seconde est faite pour estre joüée par la Basse-de-Viole ou par le Violoncello ... Le Prix en blanc est de 10 tt. Avec Privilege du Roy. Cette Planche est gravée De Berey et la musique du Livre par Du Plessis. Parigi: Boivin, 1722. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 69, [i] (Privilege du Roy dated April 24, 1714) pp. Notated on two staves: solo violin and figured bass, with the exception of the final sonata, Sonata XV, notated on three staves (violin, viol or cello, and figured bass). With "Gravé par F. du Plessy" printed to foot of final page of music.

First Edition. Rare. Lesure p. 422. Hirsch III, 392. RISM M1233 (two copies only in North America).

Provenance
Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), noted pianist and collector, with his distinctive bookplate to front pastedown and verso of front free endpaper and annotations in his hand in pencil both above and below both bookplates, small monogrammatic handstamp to lower right corner of title and to lower outer corner of p. 25 of first work.

Folio. Full contemporary ivory vellum with raised bands on spine in compartments, later dark red leather title label gilt to spine.

Binding worn, soiled, stained, and warped; rebacked and recornered; endpapers worn and quite stained. Occasional foxing, soiling, browning, and staining, mainly to margins; dampstaining to some upper outer corners; several small tears with minor loss to final three leaves of outer edge of Op. 6. Mascitti, an Italian composer and violinist, "was taught by his uncle, Pietro Marchitelli, who was attached to the royal chapel of Naples and to the church of S Bartolomeo as a violinist. Marchitelli procured for his young nephew the post of a ‘supernumerary violinist’ in the royal chapel with the prospect of a permanency later, but Mascitti preferred to seek his fortune abroad. Having travelled through Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, he settled in Paris in 1704. He soon attracted the attention of the Duke of Orléans and through him gained the opportunity to play before the king, the dauphin and the whole court. Mascitti became a figurehead of Italian instrumental music in France and was regarded as the peer of Corelli and Albinoni. Possessing the advantage over his fellow-nationals of residence in Paris, where all nine of his published collections were first issued between 1704 and 1738, Mascitti enjoyed enormous popularity with the French public, to whom he was affectionately known by his first name Michele in various gallicized forms." Michael Talbot in Grove Music Online

"The success of his sonatas in his own day is evidenced by their several reprints throughout the century ... and the high praise for them to be found in the writings of Daquin, Le Blanc, and la Borde, among others." Newman: The Sonata in the Baroque Era, pp. 368-369.

Mascitti brought Italian violinistic virtuosity to Paris and, like Couperin, pursued a harmonious melding of French and Italian styles in his music. (Inventory #: 39782)