Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books LLC

Books on Music Theory and the Violin

Fridolin Hamma.  Mesiter Deutscher Geigenbaukunst.  Stuttgart, Schuler-Gerlag, 1948. Limited edition, #747/1200.  12x10 inches; 69pp plus 66 full-page plates of photographs of violins. 

Very nice copy, well constructed and designed, with a vellum-like spine, leather label, and decorated linen covers.  This is an ex-library copy, with library stamps on the page edge top and bottom. with a few scant markings in the interior.  

$175.00

 

 

 

 

 

Raphael Georg Kiesewetter (1773-1850) Die Musik der Araber nach Originalquellen  Dargestellt...with a foreward by Freiherrn von Hammer-Purgstall.  Leipzig, Druck und Verlag von Breitkoppf und Haertel, 1842.  12x9 inches; xix, 96pp, plus 24 full page engravings (on both sides of a sheet, making 12 leaves in all, plus errata sheet. 

With "six illustrations in the text and notes pages xxiv-inserts, which Tonformeln the ancient authors, it now contains some viable folk tunes and songs..."

Original printed wrappers, bound in 1940's library buckram.  Nice, crisp copy, and ex-library:  library named stamped at page edges top and bottom, bookplate on the front pastedown and also on the verso of the printed wrapper, perforated library stamps on the title page, page 15, and also on the rear page.  That said, this is a nice copy.   $200

This is a pioneering work in musicology, an early attempt in occidental understanding.  The work includes an historical overview, and then chapters on scale, different modes, rate & rhythm, and then on instruments and harmony, plus an assessment of the Persian_Arabic musical system, not to mention the  a look at the contemporary music of Arabs, Turks and Bedouins. 

 

Alberto Bachmann.  Les Grands Violonistes du Passe.  Paris, Librairie Fischbacher, 1913.  13x9 inches; vi, 468pp, illustrated.  Printed on heavy glazed stock.  Heavy buckram covers, with reinforced hinges that actually make the book usable (given its weight-to-dimension impressiveness).  That said, this is an ex-library book, with semi-erased  call numbers at the bottom of the spine; library name stamped at page edges, and a perforated stamp on the title page.  Really, though this is not so bad as it might sound, being a nice, very sturdy copy of a very scarce book. 

Includes appreciations of  Alard, Baillot, de Bériot, Corelli, Dancla, David, Ernst, Fiorillo, Gaviniès, Geminiani, Habeneck, Halir, Joachim, Krasselt, Kreutzer, Lafont, Laub, Leclair, Léonard, Lipinsky, Locatelli, Mestrino, Milanollo, Nardini, Neruda, Paganini, Pugnani, Rode, Sarasate, Sivori, Spohr, Somis, Stamitz, Tartini, Veracini, Vieuxtemps, Viotti, Vivaldi, Wieniawsky, and Wilhelmj.

$200

Bachmann is also the author of the Encyclopedia of the Violin.

 

Illustrated History of Cremonese Violins, with Folding Diagrams

BAUMAN, Jindrich. Cremona housle a jejich stavb.  Kladno: Josefa Solce, 1899.  8vo. text & 4to. atlas: pp. 1 plate,  x, 191pp;  plus Atlas volume of   [5pp], then 23 folding plates (folding once) of famous violins from the 16th-19th centuries. 

Bboth volumes bound together in one volume (12"x8"), the text volume being quite short, about 8" tall. 

This is an "academic" copy, being in Fair condition, at best. Nearly all the plates are detached at the folds, and are in need of repair.  The book is ex-library, with assorted stamps, though it was very nicely preserved in a two-part solander and clamshell case done up in buckram. 

 Here'a the list of folding plates:

 

There seems to be only one other copy online, available at about $700.  This copy is till usable but not I would say to be in collectible condition.  Given its rarity and  usefulness, and then subtracting for condition, I think the price on these volumes should be $275.

Raphael Georg Kiesewetter (1773-1850) Die Musik der Araber nach Originalquellen  Dargestellt...with a foreward by Freiherrn von Hammer-Purgstall.  Leipzig, Druck und Verlag von Breitkoppf und Haertel, 1842.  12x9 inches; xix, 96pp, plus 24 full page engravings (on both sides of a sheet, making 12 leaves in all, plus errata sheet. 

With "six illustrations in the text and notes pages xxiv-inserts, which Tonformeln the ancient authors, it now contains some viable folk tunes and songs..."

Original printed wrappers, bound in 1940's library buckram.  Nice, crisp copy, and ex-library:  library named stamped at page edges top and bottom, bookplate on the front pastedown and also on the verso of the printed wrapper, perforated library stamps on the title page, page 15, and also on the rear page.  That said, this is a nice copy.   $200

This is a pioneering work in musicology, an early attempt in occidental understanding.  The work includes an historical overview, and then chapters on scale, different modes, rate & rhythm, and then on instruments and harmony, plus an assessment of the Persian_Arabic musical system, not to mention the  a look at the contemporary music of Arabs, Turks and Bedouins. 

Alberto Bachmann.  Les Grands Violonistes du Passe.  Paris, Librairie Fischbacher, 1913.  13x9 inches; vi, 468pp, illustrated.  Printed on heavy glazed stock.  Heavy buckram covers, with reinforced hinges that actually make the book usable (given its weight-to-dimension impressiveness).  That said, this is an ex-library book, with semi-erased  call numbers at the bottom of the spine; library name stamped at page edges, and a perforated stamp on the title page.  Really, though this is not so bad as it might sound, being a nice, very sturdy copy of a very scarce book. 

 

 

Includes appreciations of  Alard, Baillot, de Bériot, Corelli, Dancla, David, Ernst, Fiorillo, Gaviniès, Geminiani, Habeneck, Halir, Joachim, Krasselt, Kreutzer, Lafont, Laub, Leclair, Léonard, Lipinsky, Locatelli, Mestrino, Milanollo, Nardini, Neruda, Paganini, Pugnani, Rode, Sarasate, Sivori, Spohr, Somis, Stamitz, Tartini, Veracini, Vieuxtemps, Viotti, Vivaldi, Wieniawsky, and Wilhelmj.

$200

Bachmann is also the author of the Encyclopedia of the Violin. 

Illustrated History of Cremonese Violins, with Folding Diagrams

BAUMAN, Jindrich. Cremona housle a jejich stavb

 Kladno: Josefa Solce, 1899.  8vo. text & 4to. atlas: pp. 1 plate,  x, 191pp;  plus Atlas volume of   [5pp], then 23 folding plates (folding once) of famous violins from the 16th-19th centuries. 

Bboth volumes bound together in one volume (12"x8"), the text volume being quite short, about 8" tall. 

This is an "academic" copy, being in Fair condition, at best. Nearly all the plates are detached at the folds, and are in need of repair.  The book is ex-library, with assorted stamps, though it was very nicely preserved in a two-part solander and clamshell case done up in buckram. 

 Here'a the list of folding plates:

There seems to be only one other copy online, available at about $700.  This copy is till usable but not I would say to be in collectible condition.  Given its rarity and  usefulness, and then subtracting for condition, I think the price on these volumes should be $275.

Kiesewetter on Pythagoras

"We shall therefore borrow all our Rules for the Finishing our Proportions, from the Musicians, who are the greatest Masters of this Sort of Numbers, and from those Things wherein Nature shows herself most excellent and compleat." Leon Battista Alberti (1407-1472)

Kiesewetter, Rafael Georg.  Ueber die Octave des Pyhtagoras.  Ist die Mitte einer gespanniten Saite wirklich der Punkt der Octave  ihres Grundklanges und die pythagoraeische Ration 1:2 eine Wahrhet?  Wien, 1848.  18pp. 9x6 inches.  Scarce.  $125

Kiesewetter was also the owner of a Stradivari violin, which I'm thinking is unusual in the history of mathematics.

See here for Harvard's digital copy of this book. Kiesewetter is seen as the founder of musicology in Austria, who also published the substantial works Die Verdienst der Niederländer um die Tonkunst, 1829, Der Europäische Geschichte - oder unserer heutigen Musik abendländischen, 1834, and the "groundbreaking (H. von Helmholtz)Die Musik der Araber, 1842.

Children, Artillery and the Geometry of Cannon Fire, 1812

ITEM: "Shipbuilding", enraved plate from Rees' Encyclopedia, 1812. 10x8 inches. Very good condition. $45

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1366

There were many integral components to firing a cannon on a ship, not the least of which were the Powder Boys, the small, young, semi-strong kids who would run the gunpowder from a below-decks armory to whatever gun deck was needed.  It was a relatively simple procedure, filling up a longish tube (cannon  derived from the Italian  cannone--or large tube--which came from the Latin canna from the Greek  kannē , meaning something like a reed or any similar hollow thing) with gunpowder and then cannonball/shot and then wad, then causing the gunpowder/propellant to ignite and throw the ball.  Basically, that was it, though you needed to maintain the cannon, aim it, and so on (don't forget to first swab the bore from unexploded gunpowder so you don't blow things up!).

The (first)  image above of found modernist/semi-dadaist artwork comes form 1812 and was found in Rees'¹ Encyclopedic Dictionary from the article on "Shipbuilidng"   and illustrates the ways in which the stern of a ship can be outfitted with cannons--actually, the sterns of the HMS Bodiceae (28 18-pounders)  and HMS Hamadryad  (36 guns). Also by this time cannons had been carried on naval ships for nearly four hundred years, while the first cannons appeared on the ground in Europe another few hundred years before that. 

 

In the third detail (below) we see the coverage of the four cannons placed in the stern of the Bodicae, mainly pointing out its weaknesses, showing the undefended arc, which comprises about 1/3, or about 60 degrees of the defensive posture.  The Hamadryad on the other hand shows 100% coverage of the 180+ degrees of attack possibilities shown, along wioth secondary and teriary areas of fire coverage covered by mor ethan one gun.

A fine,tiny detail from the full engraved sheet:

And the full sheet, available at our blog bookstore:

 

This is pretty much all that was needed to fire a cannon, except the men of course.

NOTES:

1.   I've written about before here, just enter "Rees" in the google box and there will be a dozen or so other posts.

The Big Lie--Poland as an Aggressor Against the Reich, 1939

ITEM:  Poland's Designs on Germany as expressed since the British guarantee.  [Berlin W 62, Rauchstr. 27]  [Dt. Informationsstelle], (1939), 8x5 inches, 23pp, 7 folding maps.  Good condition.  RARE.  $200

ref: JF Ptak Science Books  Post  1298      (This is the second post written on this pamphlet--it is a stunner to me every time I see it. The earlier post was written in September 2008 and can be found here.)

Here’s an interesting entry from the instrumental librarians' tool WorldCat, a massive 75 million item book database that I use with some frequency, trying to determine whether some obscure-sounding/looking pamphlet or book is actually Not Around, like not in library collections.  (When something just isn't there, not located, it makes the work even more interesting to me.)

Poland’s Designs on Germany has the sound and feel of a piece of propaganda, right from the start, just from the supra-obvious title page and the very feel of the production.  Looking for my proof-in-the-pudding--the printing information and source for the information--I found none.  Another strike for the propagandist.  (And another interesting point: the phrase "Poland's designs on Germany" is a non-starter on Google, not located on the web, or in JSTOR, or in other pay-for web commercial communities.)

Then of course there was the content, which is a simple, serial distribution of The Big Lie, painting Poland as an aggressor, hungry for German land and people. So far as I can tell there is nothing truthful in this work whatsoever, or at least I should say nothing that is assertive to the point of Poland being an "aggressor". There are seven maps illustrating the points.  These are the great hallmarks of The Big Lie--a lie so vast that no one is supposed to think it possible that someone would tell a lie so fantastic, that no broadcast lie could be so incredibly big as to have been invented and told,  and so the lie must be true.  Hitler wrote about this admiringly in Mein Kampf, expressing an idolotry for the idea in print, recognizing it as a powerfull tool of subversion and propaganda, and then went ahead and followed the instructions. 

Then comes the entry in the WorldCat–I found that the year was 1939.  It would be in September of the year that Hitler would attack Poland and the war would begin.  Who would have thought that the Nazis were acting in self defense?

The WorldCat entry:

Poland's Designs on Germany as expressed since the British guarantee.  [Berlin W 62, Rauchstr. 27]  [Dt. Informationsstelle],
1939
23 S. : 7 gez. Kt. ; 8.
Other Titles:     Polnische Ansprüche auf deutsches Reichsgebiet. engl.
Locations    Library    
Germany    BAYERISCHE STAATSBIBLIOTHEK     
Germany    BIBLIOTHEK DES HERDER-INSTITUTS     
Germany    DIE DEUTSCHE NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK   
Germany    STAATSBIBLIOTHEK ZU BERLIN

And there it is: "Dt. Infomrationnsstelle" is the Deutsche Informationnsstelle, the German Information Centre.  The  GIC exists today, but during the National Socialist period leading up to the war and during WWII it was an outlet for German propoagandistic works. There are no copies of this particular work, evidently, in libraries in the United States. This is too bad, because this is a tremendously insulting document, an insistent, insinuating, unforgiving document to the ridiculous, perverted manner of thought and logic of the Nazis.

The Compass of Music

ITEM:  engraving from Rees' Cyclopedia, 1814.  "Table of the Compass of Voices and Instruments, Shewing the Place Each Occupies in the Scale".  11x8 inches.  Good condition.  $75

This engraved plate from Abraham Rees'  Cyclopedia... is the wonderful invention of Alexandre Choron (1771-1834), and appeared (perhaps for the first time in an English press) in London in 1814.  It is a concise and interesting display of the comparisons of the reach of instruments along the eight octaves, and is a very strong example of clear and useful graphical display of quantitative data. 

The full subtitle:  "Table of the Compass of Voices and Instruments, Shewing the Place Each Occupies in the Scale".

From Grove Music Online:

Choron, Alexandre(-Etienne)

(b Caen, 21 Oct 1771: d Paris, 29 June 1834). French writer on music, instructor, publisher and composer. While still a boy, he taught himself Hebrew and German and acquired a permanent interest in scientific experiment and a fascination for music theory and the techniques of composition. Although he reached the age of 16 before taking music lessons, he had already attained elementary skill on keyboard and other instruments. He greatly valued a friendship with Grétry which began in his 20th year and which suggests that he moved to Paris after his father’s death.