An Essay upon Tune. Being an attempt to free the Scale of Music, and the Tune of Instruments, from Imperfection

Edinburgh: Printed for C. Elliot and T. Cadell, 1781. First edition, 8vo (200 x 122 mm), iv, 290, [2]pp., with final errata leaf, 19 folding engraved plates, some light offsetting, minor browning from turn-ins, contemporary tree calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt, black leather lettering piece, joints slightly cracked otherwise a fine copy. The work was published anonymously and was long attributed to the English clergyman, the Rev. Francis Kelly Maxwell (1729-1782). However, it has recently been attributed to John Maxwell who was a property manager in Scotland for Sir William Pulteney and an amateur violinist. "In the 'Essay upon Tune' Maxwell presented his discovery to the public, namely, a division of the octave into forty-four distant pitches with the mechanism to enable an organ to produce these pitches."—Kassler. Provenance: Ownership inscription and bookplate of Sir Michael R. Shaw-Stewart, 7th Baronet (1826-1903). Kassler, The Science of Music, pp.760-1.