Lot 60 
60
Charles Butler
Feminine Monarchie. 1634
Estimate:
€ 3,000 / $ 3,210 Sold:
€ 2,280 / $ 2,439 (incl. surcharge)
Pollard/Redgrave 4193. - Horn/Schenkling I, 163, 43. - Agassiz 504. - Matthew, Lit. of Music 71. - First edition in phonetic writing. The orig. edition was published in 1609. - The famous book is the first book on apiculture that tries an approach to the bee's humming in terms of its musicality. The author was not only a natural scientist, but also a pedagogue, theologist, philologist music theorist. This edition contains a fully developped bee-madrigal, the so-called Melissomelos. "The most curious part of his entertaining book is the bee’s song, a stave of musical notes, arranged in a triple time, to represent the humming of bees at swarming" (DNB). The four pages with music notes are a typographic speciality, as half of the notes are printed upside down, so that four singers can look at the notes at the same time. - This edition is printed in reformed English orthography and therefore the earliest publication in this orthography. - Head and tail margins cropped close in places. Binding somewhat rubbed, endpapers slightly soiled, else fine copy.
Third edition, the first with the bee’s madrigal, at the same time the earliest recorded publication in a reformed English spelling system. With 1 text woodcut, 7 woodcut diagrams , some woodcut initials and borders and 4 pages musical notes. 19th cent. morocco with gilt spine, gilt fillets with corner florets and gilt edges (signed Hering). - At head or bottom partly cropped close. Binding slightly rubbed, endpapers somewhat dusty, else well preserved copy.
60
Charles Butler
Feminine Monarchie. 1634
Estimate:
€ 3,000 / $ 3,210 Sold:
€ 2,280 / $ 2,439 (incl. surcharge)