A first-edition copy of the popular and influential piano method that Adam wrote for the Paris Conservatoire. The first half contains text and examples; the second half begins with its own title page (p. 83) and contains fifty progressively difficult lessons for the student.

Louis Adam was a French pianist, composer, and teacher. He served as the piano professor at the Paris Conservatoire from 1797 to 1842 and taught such notable figures as Joseph Méhul, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Ferdinand Hérold, and Henry Lemoine. This method was the third of three treatises he published on piano performance.

The Paris Conservatoire established a printing house in 1796 that shortly thereafter adopted the name Magasin du Conservatoire. The directors, who sought to limit the influence of German and Italian pedagogical works in France, then oversaw the publication of "official" French-authored methods from 1799 to 1814. The series began with a primer on music and grew to include volumes on several different subjects including theory, harmony and instruments. Each assumed the same organization, including a history of the instrument, exercises, and sonatas, and helped to establish the Conservatoire as a major international institution.