Gaffurius, Franchinus.

first edition. ff.106, folio (302 x 207mm), foliated I-C, roman letter, fine woodcut portrait on title of Gaffurius with scholars before an organ, woodcut arms of Jean Grolier (the patron and dedicatee of the book) on a4v, woodcut showing Gaffurius playing an organ at end, with De Ponte's device (Kristeller 93),15 full-page woodcut diagrams (and c.50 smaller diagrams in the text), woodcut music on M1v, c.50 woodcut initials, a tall copy with a few uncut margins, nineteenth-century panelled calf, eighteenth-century manuscript pagination throughout, neat ownership stamp and signature of Henry John Gauntlett on title and flyleaf, earlier annotation deleted on B1, small stain to G7, occasional browning, small tears to covers

Henry John Gauntlett (1805-1876), organist and hymn-composer; Sir Frederick Gore-Ouselely (1825-1889), English composer and music scholar; St Michael's College, Tenbury Wells; sale in our rooms, 21 November 1990, lot 338.  H.J. Gauntlett was Mendelssohn's organist for the first performance of Elijah in 1846 and the composer of the well-known carol tune Once in royal David's City; Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, bookplate

Edit 16 CNCE 2012; Mortimer 204; RISM Écrits, 342; Hirsch, i 197; Gregory & Bartlett, i, 102; Sander 2989; Adams G14

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Franchinus Gaffurius (1451-1522) was the first important humanist music theorist and the first to have a substantial number of writings published. Gaffurius was also a composer, whose practical knowledge informs his theoretical work: he wrote at least eighteen mass-settings, over sixty motets, and even a few secular pieces. De harmonia musicorum is the last and most fully-illustrated of Gaffurius's music treatises; completed in 1500, he did not find a patron to publish it until 1518. Gaffurius deals with the Ancient Greek modes, subjecting them to modern musical study, rather than merely transmitting Greek theory. For example he describes the true nature of musical intervals, assessing thirds and sixths as consonant intervals, rather than as dissonances according to Ancient Greek theory.