Lot 164
Morley, Thomas
A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
Set down in Forme of a Dialogue: Divided into three parts. The first teacheth to sing … The second treateth of descante … The third and last part entreateth of composition of three, foure, five or more parts … WIth new songs of, 2. 3. 4. and 5. parts. London: Humfrey Lownes, 1608. Folio (28 x 18.5cm), early-19th century straight-grain blue-green morocco (binder's blank watermarked 1819), spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, blind Greek-key and gilt fillet frames to covers, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, allegorical woodcut title-page, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces, typographic music throughout, occasionally rubricated, often with the different voices printed top-and-tail for simultaneous use, several diagrams, rubbing to spine, joints and corners, contents lightly browned, [A2] (dedication to William Byrd) upper and lower fore corners discreetly consolidated, K4 with old paper restoration to fore margin not affecting text, P1 lower fore corner reattached, a few spots and blemishes elsewhere [ESTC S115094; STC 18134]
Footnote
Second edition of ‘perhaps the most famous musical treatise in the English Language’ (The New Grove). The ‘outstanding work of scholarship’ (ODNB) by Elizabethan composer Thomas Morley, it remains important as a musical textbook today. It was first published in 1597 and a third edition did not appear until the late 18th century.