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Complete in two volumes. SCARCE SET with no other copies currently listed for sale. Particularly scarce in this high-grade internal condition. PROVENANCE: Elise Coolidge Hall, America's first Classical Saxophonist. Synopsis: a comprehensive guide to the ancient ruins and architecture of Rome, focusing on the Forum and Via Sacra after recent archaeological discoveries. OVERALL CONDITION: VERY GOOD+ Collated and complete, including all 14 plates, blanks and errata slip. SET INFO Published in 1831 by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green in London. First edition, first printing. In near-contemporary 1/2 black leather over marbled paper covered boards bordered in blind. Raised gilded spine bands and gilt lettering. All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. Two volumes. Octavo, 8.5" x 5.75". Collated and complete: v. 1 (xvi, 492 p., [9] leaves of plates ([8] folded); v. 2: iv, 400 p., [5] leaves of plates ([4] folded)): ill. (plates, plans, facsims). Errata slip in first volume. With additional within text illustrations. PROVENANCE Elise Coolidge Hall (1853-1924) was America's first female concert saxophonist, patron of the arts and leader in the movement for the saxophone to be recognized as a serious instrument worthy of significant inclusion in concert hall performances. Hall was born in Paris in 1853 into the eminent Boston Coolidge family (related to President Calvin Coolidge). She married Dr. Richard Hall, who performed the first successful appendectomy on American soil (who ironically died of a burst appendix). After her husband died in 1898, Elise's saxophone skills and dedication to music reached new heights. In 1901, she premiered her first commission, Charles Martin Loeffler's Divertissement Espagnol, with the Boston Orchestral Club. She soon became frustrated by the lack of serious saxophone literature and set out commissioning piece after piece from prominent composers of the time, including Claude Debussy. In 1919, Debussy's Rhapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone premiered in Paris by saxophonist Pierre Mayeur. There are now over 5,000 works written for symphony orchestra featuring the saxophone. CONDITON REPORT External and Binding: VERY GOOD.Square spines, firm hinges and joints, tight pages. Rubbing to spine, joints and extremities. Worn corners. Some browning of board paper near margins. Internal: NEAR FINE. Pages are impressively bright and white. Text block is generally quite clean and in excellent condition. Some light to moderate foxing to preliminaries and on/near plates. Very few signs of handling. A few smudges, partially erased pencil writing on a few blanks. Bookplate of Elise Coolidge Hall on the front pastedown of each volume. A few plates with a small marginal tear.
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