BROWN (John): - Letters upon the Poetry and Music of the Italian Opera. Addressed to a Friend.

Edinburgh: Printed for Bell & Bradfute..., 1789. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo (in 4s), pp. xx, 141 [142 blank, 143 Errata, 144 blank], later boards (20th century), paper label; title-page a little browned, but a good copy. The Scottish artist John Brown (1752 - 1787) spent ten years in Italy studying painting and wrote a series of letters about Italian opera to his friend and quasi-patron, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, who arranged for the publication of some of the letters as this book. The work was published for the benefit of Brown's widow, and Monboddo supplied a life of Brown in Latin for the work; in the second edition, the life was translated into English. Brown was appealing to Monboddo's interest in language by finding analogies between spoken language and vocal music in these letters.

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