Dom François Bedos de Celles

This exquisite edition is rarely available. Presented in two 12"x18" volumes weighing 17 pounds, it includes 400 pages of text in volume one and 137 full-page or larger illustrations in volume two, all printed on Perma-Life paper. The volumes are hand-sewn and are robust in binding to give good service in the workshop. This magnificent work, originally published in four paper-bound installments which appeared 1776-1778, Part General information on geometry, mechanics, and tools, and descriptions and dimensions for every part of the tracker organ. Part Detailed instructions for making all of the parts of an organ; detailed instructions for voicing and tuning, enlarging, and maintaining the finished instrument. Part Models of stoplists and a specimen contract for having an organ built. It explains how to test an organ, advises organists on matters within their competence concerning the building and maintaining of an organ, and recommends certain registrations as being appropriate to various kinds of composition. Part Deals with organs for use elsewhere than in churches and with mechanical organ playing devices. The instructions for translating printed music into mechanical organ form give insights into French performance practices of the mid-18th Century. This set was published by the Sunbury Press of Raleigh, North Carolina in 1977. The set is the First Printing edition limited to 1000 copies of which this is number 490 of 1000. Some of the fold-out plates are as big as 25" x 34" and all intact and beautiful. Many pages of Volume One are not split at the top or sometimes bottom (easily split with a sharp knife), with natural front edges.