Barthélemon, Maria [née Polly Young, Maria Young]. (1749 - 1799). Three Hymns and Three Anthems composed for the Asylum & Magdalen Chapels...Respectfully Dedicated to the Governors of those Charities. Op. 3. SIGNED. London: Printed for the Authoress No. 8, Kennington Place, Vauxhall, to be had of J. Bland, No. 45, Holborn. [1795]. First edition. Eng. title (with ink counter-signature of Maria Barthelemon to lower outer corner); 2 pp. subscribers list; 20 pp. eng. music (numbered 1-3 and 5-21). Bound together with additional engraved music "The Christian's Consolation," "Before Jehovah's awful Throne" and "The Hymn of Eve" (both by Arne), and "Gems of Sacred Melody Selected from Celebrated Composers and Arranged for the Piano Forte by T.S. Smith" (London: Goulding & D'Almaine, 9 pp.). Also bound in are a number of pieces in manuscript: "Magdalen or Evening Hymn" (1 page), "Easter Hymn" (1 page), "Hymn to the Trinity"(1 page), "Hymn for Good Friday" (1 page), "I will arise" (1 page), "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" (3 pages) and 12 pages of music in manuscript titled "Brugnier's Third Dramatic Divertimento from Rossini's Airs / Arranged as a Duet for Two Performers on One Piano Forte / and presented to Mr. Brugnier by his Pupil Martha Wood." In fine condition, all bound together in brown marbled boards, quarter blue leather. Spine chipped, front joint splitting, boards worn, internally fine.

Maria Barthelemon was an English soprano, composer and keyboardist, who came to prominance at an early age when she performed to audiences in Dublin in the company of Thomas Arne and his wife Cecilia (Maria's aunt, and herself one of the greatest English sopranos of the 18th century). She made her Covent Garden debut in September 1762, and two seasons later joined the Italian Opera Company at the King's Theatre where she met and married the violinist and composer Francois Hippolyte Barthelemon. They toured the continent in 1776-77, when Maria sang in her husband's oratorio Jefte in Florence, and gave concerts for the Queen of Naples and Marie Antoinette. In the later 1780's, they "lived in Vauxhall and attended the Chapel at the Asylum for Female Orphans, where they came under the influence of the Swedenborgian preacher, Duché. She composed three hymns and three anthems op.3 (1795) for use at the Asylum and Magdalen Chapels." (Grove Online)