Il Musico Testore del P. Bac. Zaccaria Tevo M.C. Raccomandato alla benigna et Auttoreuole Protetione dell'Illmo. Eccmo. Sigr. il Sigr. Andrea Statio Veneto Patritio

Venezia Appresso Antonio Bortoli Con licenza de Sup. e Priv., 1706. Small folio, 237 x 163 mms., pp. [x], 366 [367 - 368 errata], engraved title-page, engraved portrait of author before main body of text, musical notations through, bound in 19th century half calf, darkly marbled boards, neatly rebacked in matching calf, with black morocco labels. A very good and attractive copy. This appears to be the sole publication by Fra. Zaccaria Tevo (1651 - c. 1709), who was also a composer. "Whereas most theoretical writings propound an individual theorist's view on a specific aspect of music, occasionally there appeared a work which summarized a large body of information with no pretensions of originality. Zaccaria Tevo's Musico testore (1706) borrows profusely from authors both ancient and modern and provides, in under four hundred pages, and provides a rich compendium of the ideas and techniques which formed the basis for early eighteenth-century theory. GALILEI, MERSENNE, and KIRCHER are among the more recent authorities cited, while Boethius, GLAREAN, and especially the seventeenth century humanist Gregor Reisch are likewise called upon. Topics ranging from basic aspect of notation and intervals to the complex art of counterpoint mingle between the covers of this useful but now neglected volume" (David Damschroder, David Russell William iner alia: Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker: A Bibliography and Guide [1990]). This seems to echo a comment in William Bingley's Musical Biography ; or Memoirs of the Lives and Writings of the most eminent musical composer and writer...during the last three centuries (1834): "Zaccarua Tevo, a native of Sacca, in Sicily, a Franciscan monk, a professor or master of music in Venice, published in the year 1706, a work entitled 'Il Musico Testore.' This contains, in substance, the whole of what has been written on the subject by Boëtius, Franchinus, Galilei, Mersennus, Kircher, and several other writers. The author is so liberal in his quotations from the 'Margarita Philosophica' of Gregorius Reischius, that nearly the whole of that tract is contained in the prsent work." The work is sometimes recommended as an essential text in graduate courses in musical theory. OCLC locates copies at Biblioteca Casanantense (Italy), Nederlands Muziek Institut, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma Bibllioteca Nacional de Espana. Uncommon.