MATTHESON, Johann (1681-1764). Der vollkommene Capellmeister, das ist gründliche Anzeige aller derjenigen Sachen, die einer wissen, können, und vollkommen inne haben muss, der einer Capelle mit Ehren und Nutzen vorstehen will. Hamburg: Christian Herold, 1739. 2° (335 x 212mm). Title printed in red and black with engraved device, 1 full-page engraved table, type-set musical examples within text, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials, advertisement for Mattheson’s works on verso of final leaf. (Variable spotting and browning.) Contemporary boards, pink morocco gilt spine label, red edges (extremities rubbed, faint creasing to covers).

MATTHESON, Johann (1681-1764). Der vollkommene Capellmeister, das ist gründliche Anzeige aller derjenigen Sachen, die einer wissen, können, und vollkommen inne haben muss, der einer Capelle mit Ehren und Nutzen vorstehen will. Hamburg: Christian Herold, 1739. 2° (335 x 212mm). Title printed in red and black with engraved device, 1 full-page engraved table, type-set musical examples within text, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials, advertisement for Mattheson’s works on verso of final leaf. (Variable spotting and browning.) Contemporary boards, pink morocco gilt spine label, red edges (extremities rubbed, faint creasing to covers).

‘Among Mattheson’s numerous books, [this is] the most important … an encyclopedia of knowledge … He brings together a vast array of facts as well as his most complete statement of several major theoretical concepts. These include the systematizing of the doctrines of rhetoric as they become the basis of composition… A lengthy discussion of emotion in music leads to … the only attempt found in baroque literature to arrive at a true “doctrine” of the Affections’ (New Grove 11, p.835).