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Holder, William (1616-1697) and Gottfried Keller (d. 1704)
A Treatise of the Natural Grounds, and Principles of Harmony.
W. Pearson: London, 1731. Second Edition. Small octavo. 6 pp. (introduction/index) + 206 pp. + 2 pp. (publisher's list). Quarter-leather with brown marbled paper boards. Internally fine, front board worn and detaching; backstrip missing. Clean pages (excepting stamps and markings of various institutions on index page). A very good copy.Gottfried Keller, a German composer and harpsichordist active in England in the second half of the seventeenth century, wrote a thorough-bass treatise but died before he could see it in print. It was published posthumously in 1705 but riddled with errors. The publishers of this edition of Holder's treatise appended to it Keller's work, here entitled Rules for Playing a Thorow-Bass (beginning on p. 159), with an attempt to correct its many mistakes. A note in the frontmatter explains its inclusion: The intention of Publishing Mr. Keller's Rules, (by way of Appendix to Dr. Holder's Book) was chiefly to rescue them from many Mistakes and Errors, which were occasioned by the Ignorance of the first Publishers of them on Plates, which wou'd never have happen'd, if the judicious Author had liv'd to corrected the Plates himself.
