The Bardic Museum of primitive British Literature; and other admirable rarities; forming the second volume of the Musical, Poetical, and Historical Relicks of the Welsh Bards and Druids: Drawn from authentic documents of remote antiquity (with great pains now rescued from oblivion) and never before published... containing the bardic triads; historic odes, eulogies; songs; elegies, memorials of the tombs of the warriors; of king Arthur and his knights; regalias, the wonders of Wales, et cetera: with English translations and historic illustrations: likewise, the ancient wartunes of the bards to these national melodies are added new basses; with variations for the harp, or harpsichord; violin of flute...
1802. London: Strahan for the author, 1802.
Large 4to, [3], (iv-xx), [1], 2-112 pp, (pages 61-112 printed music). With a hand-colored engraved frontispiece, drawn by Ibbetson and J. Smith and engraved by Rowlandson, and an uncolored tailpiece. Original leather-backed boards, printed label, all somewhat worn but sound.
§ First edition of the second volume, complete in itself, of three important books on Welsh music, preceded by Musical and Poetical Relicks... (1784) and followed by Hên ganiadau Cymru: Cambro-British Melodies… (1820). Further volumes were planned but never completed due to Jones’s death in 1824. Included in this volume are grammatical rules of Welsh poetry, Bardic triads, British proverbs, odes and verses, and a dialogue between Arthur and Guinevere.
“Jones’s most important work was in the preservation of traditional Welsh music. He collected and published over 200 traditional melodies, many of which he transcribed from having heard them sung and played at home in north Wales… Jones was a serious scholar who made a notable contribution to the antiquarianism which typified much of the scholarship of his period. His library was extensive, and his research into both primary and secondary sources, including the old Welsh laws and Welsh grammars, enabled him not only to present music, but also to write in some depth about it” (DNB). Born in 1752 into a large and musical Welsh family, Jones found success as a harpist in London society to the point of being named harpist to the Prince of Wales—later George IV—and given the title the King’s Bard, or Bardd y Brenin. Later in life, his book collecting and publishing endeavors drove him into debt and forced him to auction his books on two occasions. The remnants of his library was auctioned by Sotheby’s in 1825 and even then made around £500 (over £55,000 today). Item #110658
Price: $675.00