RARE ORIGINAL MUSIC FOLIO - FIRST EDITION COLLECTION OF SIX ANTHEMS. The Dedication appears to be in Hand written Manuscript & SIGNED by Barsanti....(?) Before leaving Scotland, Barsanti dedicated a set of Six Anthems to the Right Hon. Lady Catharine Charteris, expressing the obligations he was under to her Ladyship and her Noble Family. The title bears, " Sei Antifone composte, da Francesco Barsanti. Opera Quinta." No Place. No date. Folio. Oblong Folio. 10.25" x 15.0" inches (LxB). Pp. Dedication page, List of Subscriber's page + 32 pages of engraved music pages. List of Subscriber's page has only 72 names. The Dedication page appears to be in Hand written Mauscript? signed in ink by Barsanti (See Scans below). Along with Geminiani in 1742 there came to England a performer on the tenor violin, FRANCESCO BARSANTI, who penetrated as far north as Edinburgh, where in 1742 he published 'A Collection of Old Scots Tunes, with the bass for Violoncello or Harpsichord, set and most humbly dedicated to the Right Honourable the Lady Catherine Charteris by Francis Barsanti, Edinburgh. FRANCISCO BARSANTI, an eminent musical performer and composer, a native of Lucca, born about the year 1690. He studied the civil law in the University of Padua, but, after a short stay there, chose music for his profession. Accordingly he put himself under the tuition of some of the ablest masters in Italy, and having attained to a considerable degree of proficiency in the science of practical composition, took a resolution to settle in England, and arrived there with Geminiani, who was also a Luccese, in the year 1714. He continued many years a performer at the Opera House; at length reflecting that there was a prospect of advantage for one of his profession in Scotland, he went thither, and, with greater truth than the same is asserted of David Rizzio, may be said to have meliorated the music of that country, by collecting and making basses to a great number of the most popular Scotch tunes. About the year 1750, Barsanti returned to England ; but being advanced in years, he was glad to be taken into the opera band as a per-former on the tenor violin, and in the summer season to that of Vauxhall. At this time he published twelve concertos for violins, and shortly after, "Sei Antifone," in which he endeavored to the style of Palestrina and the old composers of motets ; but from these publications little profit resulted. Among his earlier compositions were six solos for a flute, with a thorough bass, and afterwards " Six Solos for a German Flute and a Bass." He likewise formed the first six solos of Geminiani into sonatas for two violins and a bass. Towards the end of his life, the industry and oeconomy of an excellent wife, whom he had married in Scotland, and the studies and labours of a daughter, whom he had qualified for the profession of a singer, but who is now an actress at Covent-Garden, were his chief support. A classic work.