W.A. Mozart, Missa Pro Defunctis Requiem...[first edition, full score], Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1800]

MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS

Missa Pro Defunctis Requiem...Seelenmesse mit unterlegtem deutschem Texte, [full score], Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1800]

MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS REQUIEM...SEELENMESSE MIT UNTERLEGTEM DEUTSCHEM TEXTE, [FULL SCORE], LEIPZIG: BREITKOPF & HÄRTEL, [1800]

FIRST EDITION, oblong 4to (25.3 x 33cm), 178 pages, engraved frontispiece by W. Böhm after Kininger, printed title with gathering number ("1") at foot, dedication to Friedrich August III, Elector of Saxony, German texts by Clodius and Hiller at end, nineteenth-century half calf gilt, light spotting to frontispiece, some wear to corners and splitting to spine, without the publisher's green wrappers (traces remaining)

RARE: Mozart's final masterpiece, famously unfinished at his death, here with the frequently missing engraved frontispiece. This copy, in our opinion, is the first issue, since Haberkamp is evidently mistaken in calling for no gathering number ("1") on the title page. The three copies that she identifies (all in London) in fact have this number, including even the one she illustrates (plate 347). She records a total of eight exemplars of her first and second issues, reading "unterlegtem" rather than "untergelegtem" on the title; half of these lack the engraved frontispiece, and indeed we have not seen the first edition complete for many years.

LITERATURE:

Haberkamp no.2, p.385-388 (plates 346-350); Hirsch, iv 988; not in Hoboken