Musicus Apparatus Academicus, Being a Composition of Two Odes ... Perform'd in the Theatre at Oxford ... July the 13th 1713 ....

[London]: Printed for the Author ...., [1715]. First Edition.. Full contemporary sheep(?). Fair copy; covers present but detached; binding scuffed & scraped; spine abraded; internally bright.. Folio. There are two allegorical engraved divisional titles and a general engraved title.

By the age of 22 Croft was already an established composer. He had published several sonatas for violin and was also represented in The Harpsichord Master in 1700. He worked in the theatre of the period for which he composed several overtures and act tunes (notably for Courtship a la Mode at Drury Lane) . He received a number of appointments, finally taking the post as organist at Westminster Abbey in 1708. Though still not 30 years old he had established himself as one of the foremost musicians in the UK and the logical successor to Purcell. The work offered here are two odes he wrote to accompany his receiving the Doctor of Music degree from Oxford. He had them printed and sold them from his home in Westminster. The odes were an expensive undertaking and a lavish piece of book production. The text and music are entirely engraved by Thomas Atkins. DNB V, 113 - `14; Highfill, IV, 50 - 52.