GABINETTO ARMONICO PIENO D'ISTROMENTI SONORI

Book Description

Rome: Giorgio Placho, 1722. First Edition. vellum. Small library ink stamp on the verso of the title page and a small skimmed spot on the spine from the removal of a sticker. Occasional small marginal closed tear, some neatly repaired on verso. Darkening to vellum. Near Fine copy. Quarto (6-1/2" x 9") bound in contemporary full vellum. [xvi], 170, [1] pages. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece, an engraved dedication page, and 138 lovely full-page copper engravings of various instruments, some quite fanciful, played by people from different cultures in their native costumes (numbered I-CXXXVI, with two plates numbered XII-XIII and XIII-XIV; two plates with duplicate numbers but different images XXIX and LXXVIII; and two unnumbered plates. The scarce First Issue (Brunet, column 1086). The Second Issue, as well as the 1723 edition, had 151 plates with additional text in the index. A beautifully illustrated book and one of the principal sources for the history of musical instruments in the 18th century as well as being one of the earliest attempts to describe and depict every known musical instrument from the ancient times. Each instrument is illustrated being played by a native from its region of origin giving the book additional interest ethnologically and for its costumes. The work is dedicated to King David, who is shown playing the harp in the frontispiece. Of especial interest is the folding plate depicting the surreal and magnificent organ designed by Michele Todino for the Palazzo Signori Verospi in Rome. The learned Jesuit polymath, Filippo Bonanni (1638ñ1725), published on a wide spectrum of subjects, ranging from natural history and biology to numismatics. The present book, his last, is based on the Society's Collegio Romano's collection where Bonanni succeeded his teacher Athanasius Kircher as professor of mathematics.

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