With no affectation or false modesty, Gottlieb Muffat described the 1739 publication of his Componimenti musicali per il cembalo as ‘the most beautiful product to be met with in all Germany’. It was patently one of the most lavish and cosmopolitan productions of all 18th-century music printing; with paper of large format and high quality, an extravagant title-page, meticulous and calligraphic engraving, prefaces in several languages and a dedication to the Holy Roman Emperor, Muffat aimed to s...