Wagner, Richard.

first edition of the full score, one of 100 copies lithographed by the composer , [4] & 450 pages, folio (c.35 x 27.5cms),  with his lithographed signature and date at the end of the volume ("RichardWagner, Dresden, 13 April 1845"), many contemporary manuscript corrections in brown ink, some probably by the composer, rehearsal letters in orange crayon, page 79 laid down over an earlier version, modern half calf, raised bands and title-labels to spine, slip-case, small tears repaired to about 10 leaves at the beginning of the volume, very slightly affecting text on a few pages, hinges reinforced, paginations occasionally trimmed by the binder

WWV 70 XX (p.281: "Alle...Exemplare enthalten zahlreiche handschriftliche Ergänzungen und Änderungen, zum Teil möglicherweise von Wagner selbst eingetragen..."); Fuld p.428; Hirsch, ii 955; Hoboken vol 16, no.293 (with manuscript revision of the ending); Hopkinson (Tannhäuser), no.1A.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Very rare: one of a hundred copies produced by Wagner, of which only twenty-nine are now known to survive. Of these, 23 are in institutional libraries. In some copies the final twenty pages are replaced with a manuscript revision; this exemplar has all Wagner's original lithographed pages.

This is one of the most celebrated examples of publishing in the history of music. Wagner wrote his autograph full score of Tannhäuser on specially treated paper, which was then destroyed through the process of lithographing the one hundred reproductions of it.  There is therefore no surviving  autograph manuscript full score of the opera. 

The lithographing of Tannhäuser was a heroic task. Unable to get his operas performed, Wagner published them himself, issuing lithographed full scores through the small Dresden publisher C.F. Meser.  He recalled in Mein Leben, "Early in April 1845, I succeeded in completing my score of Tannhäuser.  In writing down the orchestration I made things particularly difficult for myself by using the specially-prepared paper which the printing process renders necessary, and which involved me in all kinds of trying formalities.  I had each page transferred to stone immediately and a hundred copies printed from each".  Wagner sent these full scores to the leading opera houses, hoping that they would buy them and stage his works; in fact all the copies were returned, sometimes unopened.

There are contemporary corrections in brown ink to sixty-six pages of this  score.  While most are in a copyist's hand, John Deathridge and others in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (1986) indicate certain places where the musical annotations may be by Wagner himself, including pages 319 (bassoon), 335, 342-348 (double bass), and 442-443 (string parts). In our opinion, the rests inserted in the present copy on p.35 may also be in Wagner's hand.