A wonderfully provenanced true first edition of Alexander Malcolm’s foundational work on music theory. His Treatise of Musick remains significant as the first comprehensive, systematic treatise on music theory published in Scotland and one of the most thorough English-language musical texts of the early 18th century. It bridged mathematical acoustics, notation, composition rules, and historical musicology, serving as a landmark foundational text that influenced British Enlightenment music theory and provided a rigorous rational basis for understanding music as both a science and an art.
Not traced at auction since 1967 and rare in the trade, this particular example bears the bookplate and personal card of Orlando A. Mansfield, both neatly laid in.
Dr. Orlando Augustine Mansfield (1863–1936) was a prominent English organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He served as the first president of the Incorporated Guild of Church Musicians and was a prolific composer and arranger, producing over 1,000 musical works, primarily for organ, choir, and piano. In addition to his compositions, he is widely recognized for his pedagogical and theoretical writings, including The Student's Harmony (1896), as well as numerous historical essays and analytical articles for leading music journals in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Malcolm, Alexander. Treatise of Musick, Speculative, Practical, and Historical. Containing an Explication of the Philosophical and Rational Grounds and Principles thereof; The Nature and Office of the Scale of Musick; The Whole Art of Writing Notes; and the General Rules of Composition. With a Particular Account of the Ancient Musick, and a Comparison thereof with the Modern. Edinburgh. Printed for the Author. 1721. First edition.
Textually very good with some light handling and foxing. All six folding plates present and in generally very good condition; with with likely late 19th or early 20th century professional repairs. Boards detached. Else, really a very nice example of a very scarce work.
