Bidspirit auction | Bernardo Valentim Moreira de Sá

Bernardo Valentim Moreira de Sá - História da Evolução Musical - Bernardo Valentim Moreira de Sá, 1924. Published undated [S.D., circa 1925-1928] in Porto, by Casa Moreira de Sá Editora. This is a monumental and highly unusual publication of a historical, biographical, and pedagogical nature on the development of world musical art and theory, from its origins in Classical Greek Antiquity to the 20th century. The work is authored by Bernardo Valentim Moreira de Sá (1853-1924), an illustrious violinist, conductor, renowned musicologist, and founder of the Porto Conservatory of Music. This edition is a carefully crafted posthumous publication (referring to the author's death in 1924), profusely illustrated in the text with over 370 photogravures reproducing ancient instruments (lyres, citterns), autographs, musical scores, and portraits of classical composers (such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean-Philippe Rameau). Enriched with a magnificent portrait of the author in an extra-text, reproducing a charcoal drawing from November 1923 by Master António Carneiro. The copy features an exquisite period-themed binding in dark blue half-leather with corners, a spine divided into five exquisitely decorated gold compartments with elegant lyres and gilded rosettes, plates covered in blue and yellow marbled paper, and a half-title page stamped in ink with the legendary ”Casa Editora de Músicas Eduardo da Fonseca & Filhos” (Porto). The text block and prints are in extraordinary mechanical and aesthetic condition, completely clean.