[A. Ariosti.] Alla Maestà di Giorgio Rè della Gran Britagna [Six cantatas and lessons for viola d'amore], 1724

[Attilio Ariosti]

Alla Maestà di Giorgio Rè della Gran Britagna &c: &c: [Six cantatas and six lessons for viola d'amore, dedicated to George I, by A. A., i.e. Attilio Ariosti] [score], [London: 1724]

FIRST EDITION, 3 leaves, 12 pages, 6 leaves, 47 pages, 3 leaves, large folio (40.4 x 26.3cm), engraved music, printed subscribers' list and texts of the cantatas, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II C 36") to verso of first leaf, edges gilt, vellum-backed contemporary marbled wrappers

An attractive volume of cantatas and lessons for the viola d'amore, the edition representing possibly the most successful sale of music by subscription in the whole of the eighteenth century (the subscribers' list includes 764 names, among them 42 dukes and duchesses and 105 earls and countesses). The lessons are notable for being printed in a unique scordatura system which allowed their performance with violin fingerings on the viola d'amore.

LITERATURE:

RISM A 1420; BUC, p.1; TNG, i, p.903

PROVENANCE:

From the collection of Arnold Dolmetsch