His treatise on the five-course guitar was first printed in Barcelona in 1596; no copies of this edition are known to survive. The earliest known copy is one printed in Lérida in 1626, now in the Newberry Library, Chicago. This reproduces the Aprobacion and Imprimatur of the Bishop of Barcelona, dated 15 June 1596 and 5 July 1596 respectively, and Amat’s letter dedicating the work to Juan de Agua Viva y Tamarit dated 10 August, 1596, from the original edition. The 1626 version was reprinted in Lérida in 1627; there is a copy in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. This includes the letter of dedication, but not the Aprobacion and Imprimatur. In 1639 a new edition of the work was printed in Barcelona; there is a copy in the Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence. This includes the Aprobacion and Imprimatur dated 1596, but not Amat’s letter of dedication. Instead it has a letter addressed to Amat by Leonardo de San Martín, dated 30 April 1639; this gives the date of the first edition as 1586 – probably a misprint. There were at least two further seventeenth century editions printed in Barcelona, in 1640 – a copy is in the library of the Hispanic Society of America, and in 1674 – in 1918 a copy was listed as being in a private collection. Both include the Aprobacion, Imprimatur and Amat’s letter of dedication.
Seventeenth century copies comprise nine chapters in Castilian (Spanish). During the eighteenth century the book was issued with a supplement of five chapters entitled “Tractat breu”; this is in Catalan or Valencian according to the place of printing. This may not be by Amat. The earliest copy at present known to include the “Tractat breu” was printed in Barcelona in 1701; the location is not yet traced. Eighteenth century copies do not have the author’s name on the title page and are often undated. They include the letter of Leonardo de San Martin, but not the Aprobacion or Imprimatur. They have often been wrongly dated 1639 on the basis of San Martin’s letter, and the date of the original edition cited as 1586 on the same basis. The book was still being reprinted at least as late as 1780.
The translation of the main part of the work is based on the 1626 edition. This is followed by the title page and letter of Leonardo de San Martin from the 1639 edition and the title page of the edition printed by Joseph Brò c.1761. The translation of the “Tractat breu” is based on the Catalan version included in the Joseph Brò edition. The illustrations are from the Joseph Brò edition.
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