Leçons de Clavecin, et Principes d'Harmonie

Paris: Bluet ... Avec Approbation, & Privilege du Roi, 1771. Quarto. Modern quarter mid-tan tree calf with marbled boards, spine in gilt-ruled compartments with titling gilt, ribbon marker, patterned endpapers. 1f. (recto half-title, verso blank), 1f. (recto title with publisher's decorative device, verso blank), v-viii ("L'Editeur"), 362 pp. + 1f. (recto "Approbation" and "Privilege," verso blank). With exceptionally attractive decorative woodcut tailpieces, some signed "Huault" or "H", and numerous typeset musical examples throughout.

Uniform light browning. Le Duc overpaste to Bluet imprint to title, as in other copies: "Chez Le Duc, au Magasin de Musique et d'Instruments ... Rue neuve des petits Champs No. 1286, vis à vis la Trésorerie Près la Rue Vivienne."

A very good, wide-margined copy overall, with a preface by Diderot. First Edition. Cortot p. 18. Gregory-Bartlett p. 28. Hirsch I, 56. Wolffheim I, 497. RISM Écrits p. 132.

Bemetzrieder was a noted French theorist and teacher. "His first work, Leçons de clavecin, et principes d’harmonie, was a tremendously successful dialogue-form treatise, which was edited and endorsed by Diderot. He continued publishing pedagogical works in French until he left Paris in 1781, moving to London, where he taught music and expanded, re-edited and translated his earlier works. He also wrote on music education, mathematics, philosophy and ethics." Cynthia M. Gessele, and Jean Gribenski in Grove Music Online. (Inventory #: 40109)