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A BOOK OF CANTATAS AND ARIAS BOUGHT IN
FLORENCE, 1723
REINHARD STROHM
T H E music manuscript recently acquired by the British Library
and now held as Add.^ S . 71535 is a most valuable specimen of the
Italian Baroque tradition so wellrepresented in collections of this
country. It could almost be considered an 'Englishmusic book'. On
the front flyleaf (f. i), there is what appears to be an
acquisition recordof probably its earliest owner, 'Willoughby
Bertie Florence May 16: 1723', written inink presumably by Bertie
himself. A later entry by a different hand, immediatelyunderneath,
identifies him as 'afterwards 3rd Earl of Abingdon'. Born in 1692
as the sonof James Bertie of Middlesex (d. 1735), Willoughby
inherited the title of Earl ofAbingdon from his uncle Montague
Bertie, the second Earl, in 1743. While in Florencein August 1727,
he married Anna Maria Collins; their son Willoughby, born
1740,became the fourth Earl at his father's death in 1760.̂ Later
owners of the manuscript areat present not traceable between Bertie
and Raymond Leppard, who in 1994 donated thevolume to the Musicians
Benevolent Fund. It was sold on their behalf and for
theircharitable purposes by Phillips auctioneers on 25 May 1994
(lot 125), and bought for theBritish Library.^
The manuscript is of paper, with 113 folios of oblong size
measuring 175 x 240 mm.The binding is of full contemporary
parchment, carrying on the spine a mid eighteenth-century title '
Arie/Florence/1723', written by an English hand. There are two
flyleaveseach at the front and at the back (numbered as ff. i, ii,
with two free flyleaves blank andunnumbered),^ which are cut from
two original sheets of the same paper. The watermarkappearing on
the two free flyleaves, three circles surmounted by a crown,
resemblesHeawood 309 and 314 (documented London 1683 and 1684) or
perhaps 258 (Leghorn1700).^ There seem to be traces of a
countermark ('LE'? or 'LD'?) not appearing inHeawood. The paper
used for the music is thicker and seems to be the same
throughoutthe 113 folios, to judge from the pattern of chain lines.
No watermark is visible. The sizeof the written area varies, even
within sections written by the same hand: for the mostpart there
are ten staves per page, but the two gatherings (ff. 5-8, 45-50)
ruled with eightaccommodate shorter pieces.
The musical content of the manuscript comprises twenty-one
Italian cantatas for solovoice and basso continuo (nos. 1-21), and
seven single arias, probably all from operas(nos. 22-28). Some of
these (nos. 24-27) are copied with violins, the others with b.
c.
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only; in no. 25, violins and violas are directed to play 'col
basso'. Four scribal hands canbe distinguished, each responsible
for both text and music of the following numbers:
Hand A: nos. 1-6 (ff. 1-24).Hand B: nos. 7-19, 27 (ff. 25-84,
106-109).Hand C: nos. 20-24, 28 (ff. 85-99, 110-112).Hand D: nos.
25-26 (ff. 101-105).
The identity of Hands B and C on the earlier and later pages may
not seem obvious atfirst glance. The classification of the scribal
hands given here coincides with the BritishLibrary description by
Arthur Searle, arrived at independently. The section of Hand
Acontains calligraphic initials in ink of two staves' height (see
figs, i, 2). These wereperhaps drawn by the scribe, as will be
argued below.
Folios 50, 54, 74, 80, 89-90, 95-96, 100 and 113 are entirely
blank. The fascicles,usually of four folios, contain as a rule a
single cantata and often end with blank pagesor folios. Only the
first cantata is in fact numbered in a contemporary hand; for
thepurposes of the table of contents of the manuscript given below
and the discussion whichfollows numbers have been assigned to the
remaining items, in order as they appear inthe volume. For the
musical incipits of otherwise unidentified pieces, see the
thematiccatalogue in the Appendix to this article.
BRITISH LIBRARY, ADD. MS. 7 1 5 3 5 : TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hand A
No. I, ff. lr-4vAmante in Prigione a Filli. Del S[igno]r Andrea
Fiore
'Una cara ed'una ingrata' A + b. c. See fig. i for f. i.
No. 2, ff. 5r-8vDel S[igno]r Benedetto Marcello
'Saria pur dolce Amor, saria pur grato' (A 301)̂ A-hb. c.
No. 3, ff. 9r-i2vDel Sig[nor] Hendel detto il Sassone.
Cantata'Se pari e la tua fe' (HWV 158) S + b. c. See fig. 2 for f
9r.
No. 4, ff. I3r-i6r(No title)'Ch'io respiri, ch'io viva' A + b.
c.
No. 5, ff. i7r-2ov(No title)'Vissi gran tempo, o amara
rimembranza' S + b. c.
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Q CJIICI ca-rti tV u
^. / . Add. MS. 71535, f. I
No. 6, ff. 2ir-24rZ)f/ Sig[nor] Hendel detto il Sassone.
Cantata'D'Amarilli vezzosa mentre in placido sonno' (HWV deest) S +
b. c.
Hand B
No. 7, ff.Cantata. Del Sig[no]re Bened[ett]o Marcello'Deh,
volate alfidol mio' (A 86) S + b. c. See fig. 3 for f. 25r.
No. 8, ff.Cantata. Del Stg[no\re Bened[ett]o Marcello'Se i mesti
miei sospiri' (A 307 a/b) S + b. c.
No. 9, ff.Cantata. Del Sig[no]re Bened[ett]o Marcello'Basta che
in voi m'affissi' (A 40) S + b. c.
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jocoeh-o'nel'Jcn' ay '
g
;̂ . 2. Add MS. 71535, f
No. 10, ff.Cantata. Del Stg[no]re Bened[ett]o Marcello
'Quanto mai sarei felice' (A 281) S + b. c.
No. II , ff.Cantata. Del Sig. Andrea Fiore'Fileno idolo mio,
vorrei almeno' S + b. c.
No. 12, ff. 45r-49vCantata. Del Sig[no]re Martino de Leonardis'A
lasciar del Sebeto le fortunate arene' S + b. c.
No. 13, ff. 5ir-53vCantata'Entro un boschetto aprico' S + b.
c.
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Fig. 3. Add. MS. 71535, f. 25
No. 14, ff.Cantata. Del Sig[no]re Stefano Leporati'Da queH'alta
belta per me fatale' S + b. c.
No. 15, ff. 59r-62vCantata'Piange la rondinella, allor che vede
al suolo' A + b. c.
No. 16, ff. 63r-68rCantata. Del Sig[no]re Lorenzo Bonucelli'Se
con un lungo piangere' S + b. c.
No. 17, ff. 69Cantata. Del Sig[no]re Lorenzo Bonucelli'E questo
e Amor, e quando a se ti chiama' S + b. c.
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No. i8, fF. 75r-Cantata. Del Sig[no]re Bonucelli'E sempre, e
quando parti, e quando torni' A + b. c.
No. 19, ff. 8ir-84vCantata'E ver che a noi vicina' S + b. c.
Hand C
No. 20, ff. 85r-88vCantata'Cara, qualor mi giri lusinghiera' S +
b. c. [Francesco Mancini]*
No. 21, ff. 9ir-92v(No title)'Ho una pena intorno al core' S +
b. c. [Alessandro Scarlatti]
No. 22, ff. 93r-vAria'Voi tacete? Rispondete' S + b. c.
(aria)
No. 23, ff. 93V-Q4VAria [title added by Hand B]'Se si potesse
amar, e amando sospirar' S + b. c. (aria)
No. 24, ff.(No title) [There is an erased incipit which was
perhaps *La pena m'uccise'. This could be a cuethe last words of
the preceding recitative in the opera.]'Se quella che a me dai
legge di non ferir' S, strings+ b. c.
Hand D
No. 25, ff. ioir-vAna [Hand B]'So che grande e il tuo dolore' B,
unison strings+ b. c. [G. M. Orlandini]
No. 26, ff. iO2r-io5rAria [Hand B]*Tra tempeste moleste a
quest'alma' S, strings+ b. c. [G. M. Orlandini]
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Hand B
No. 27, ff. io6r-io9rDel Siglno^re Franc[es]co Gasparrini [sic]'
In me se vuo celarlo, e se vub palesarlo' S, strings+ b. e.
Hand C
No. 28, ff. iior-ii2v(No title)
'Languidetto Tusignolo' S + b. c.
I I
The remainder of this contribution is an attempt to reconstruct
the origins, and assessthe significance, of this music book. In
comparison with contemporary cantata and ariacollections, this one
has several unusual and difficult features. 1 know of no other
cantatamanuscript of this period with an acquisition record or ex
libris naming Florence. Wasthis city the actual provenance of the
manuscript or of some of its components? Asregards the date, 1723,
a study of the musical contents suggests that it was entered
byWilloughby Bertie very soon after the manuscript's
compilation.
While the codicological evidence is insufficient to establish
either provenance or date,there is in any case neither a 'typically
Roman' nor a 'typically Venetian' watermark('fleur-de-lys in
circle' or 'tre lune', respectively). As the paper seems all of one
kind,and as the scribal hands B (see fig. 3) and C recur after D at
the end of the manuscript,a common provenance for at least ff.
25-113 is very probable. As indicated in the table,scribe B has
provided the titles 'Aria' to the pieces copied by scribes C and D.
ScribeB has also made a few further additions and corrections -
dynamic markings, etc. - inno. 24, copied by Hand C. This places
scribe B in a supervisory position, with perhapsspecial
responsibility for assembling the music. Whether this scribe was a
performingmusician who compiled the manuscript for himself (or
herself), remains in doubt.Clearly, scribe B originally intended
the manuscript as a collection of solo cantatas. Nineof the
twenty-one Italian solo cantatas assembled here are attributed to
famous specialistsof cantata composition in the period circa
1710-20: G. F. Handel, B. Marcello, F.Mancini (not named) and A.
Scarlatti (not named).^ These authors, perhaps with theexception of
Handel, might appear in almost any Italian cantata manuscript of
the yearscirca 1710—25; no special relation between them and the
manuscript's compilers shouldautomatically be assumed. It may or
may not be significant that scribe C begins hiscontribution with
two cantatas by the two most famous Roman/Neapolitan authors ofthe
genre, but does not name them.
By contrast, five other cantatas are attributed to the virtually
unknown musiciansStefano Leporati, Martino de Leonardis and Lorenzo
Bonucelli, all in the section written
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by scribe B. The names of these composers might well point
towards some personal orlocal context, although the single pieces
by de Leonardis and Leporati may of course berandom appearances. A
kind of middle ground is held by Stefano Andrea Fiore,Francesco
Gasparini and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (not named), who were all
highlyreputed around 1710-25, but Fiore and Orlandini not as
cantata composers. Gaspariniand Orlandini, in fact, contribute only
opera arias, which may suggest that these two menwere individually
significant enough to the compilers to modify the genre-destination
ofthe collection for their sakes. When opera arias intrude into
cantata collections of thisperiod, they tend to be connected with
recent or local opera performances. In ourmanuscript, it is scribe
C who abandons cantatas in favour of opera arias, possibly forthe
sake of actuality, adopting also a shghtly more cursive
calligraphy. Scribe B, the'supervisor', then joins this effort by
improving the copies of scribe C and alsocontributing an opera aria
by Francesco Gasparini (no. 27). The arias by Orlandini arelimited
to the work of scribe D, but here, too, scribe B feels responsible
enough to addtitles. It is helpful that the arias nos. 25 and 26
can be identified. Both come fromOrlandini's opera / / carceriero
di se stesso, given as the first carnival opera of 1720 at
theTeatro Carignano, Turin. 'So che grande e il tuo dolore',
isolated in the collection as abass aria, was sung by Antinoro
Claudi, 'Tra tempeste' by Agnese Angelini, both little-known
singers. A slightly different version of 'Tra tempeste' was also
sung in Orlandini'sopera Griselda in Venice in Spring 1720. In
1720, Orlandini, a member of the AccademiaFilarmonica of Bologna,
was maestro di capella at the Medici court of Tuscany.
Thelibrettist of / / carceriero, Antonio Salvi, was the Medici
court poet. The singing cast ofthe opera, which included Francesca
Cuzzoni, had been engaged from Florence, exceptperhaps for Agnese
Angelini and Antinoro Claudi whose home is unknown.
The arias copied by scribe C are not yet securely identifiable.
'Se si potesse amar' (no.23) is the text of an aria (music lost) in
Stefano Andrea Fiore's opera, / / pentimentogeneroso, given in
Venice (Teatro S. Angelo) in the carnival of 1719. A different
settingof these words by Giovanni Maria Capelli appeared in Act I
of Nino, Reggio Emilia,Spring 1720, an opera to which also
Francesco Gasparini and Antonio Bononcinicontributed one act each.
Different again in text and music is Antonio Vivaldi's aria 'Sesi
potesse amar' in Uincoronazione di Dario., Venice, 1717. The arias
'Voi tacete?', 'Sesi potesse amar' and 'Languidetto l'usignolo' are
all in a very simple, galant idiom, aspractised by Orlandini,
Porta, Vivaldi, Fiore and other composers working in NorthernItaly
at the time. 'Se quella che a me dai' uses a more conservative
saraband idiom asfound in heroic arias by Gasparini, Lotti or
Handel. Francesco Gasparini's aria ' In mese vuo celarlo', copied
by scribe B, corresponds to his style oi circa 1715-20. The
wordsare not found in any of his librettos performed in Rome or
Venice.
Stefano Andrea Fiore (1686-1732), a native of Milan, had been
maestro di capella atthe Royal Court of (Sicily-)Savoy in Turin
since 1709; he also was a member of theAccademia Filarmonica of
Bologna. Stefano Leporati was maestro di capella at the courtof
Modena. Gasparini - himself from Tuscany - had by 1720 settled in
Rome, althoughbetween 1718 and 1723 operas by him were also given
in Florence, Milan, Turin, Venice
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and Reggio Emilia (under the Dukes of Modena). In these years,
Orlandini and Fioreperformed operas in almost exactly the same
cities, with the exception that apparentlyno opera by Fiore was
given in Florence.
For Fiore's cantatas (contributed here by scribes A and B), no
reliable work-list isavailable; 'Fileno, idolo mio' also exists in
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.MS. 1060. By contrast, the
excellent thematic catalogue of Marcello's works by
EleanorSelfridge-Field (see note 5) gives further information on
all Marcello cantatas attributedto him in Add. MS. 71535. 'Saria
pur dolce' (no. 2) is dated '1703' in a Florentinesource; one of
the other seven manuscripts (University of California at Berkeley,
MusieLibrary, MS. 12, also from Florence?) has a similar rhythmic
variant and shares the'adagio' tempo marking of our manuscript.
'Deh volate' (no. 7) is dated '1715' inLondon, Royal College of
Music, MS. 685. It is worth noting that scribes A and B areboth
interested in Benedetto Marcello, but neither attributes a cantata
to him that is nototherwise known under his name.
A toccata by Martino de Leonardis, apparently dated 1713, is
extant in the Bibliotecadel Conservatorio 'S . Pietro a Majella',
Naples; no other information about thismusician is known to me. His
cantata no. 12 in our manuscript, however, is topical: itmentions a
personage ('Aminta') who 'by command of the Empire' (Megge
d'Impero')has to leave the banks of the River Sebeto, i.e. Naples.
This could refer, for example, toa Habsburg Viceroy or high
official recalled by the Emperor to Vienna, such as happenedto
Count Wirich Daun or Cardinal Wolfgang von Schrattenbach, Austrian
Viceroys ofNaples until 1719 and 1721, respectively. No information
at all has come forward onLorenzo Bonucelli. This seems interesting
since totally unknown composer names havebecome very rare in the
cantata field. The work of scribe B seems to be linked to
anenvironment not as yet well represented in the surviving
sources.
I l l
The section copied by scribe A, with its attribution of a
cantata to Handel that isunknown to the Handel Werkverzeichnis,'
must be investigated here a little morethoroughly. What was the
background of this scribe, and are there any real links with
Handel? . 1 1 irThese twenty-four folios, which we may
call'section A', could be considered as a selt-
contamed little anthology of six cantatas. Only three composers
- Handel, Marcello andFiore - are named. The two anonymous cantatas
resemble stylistically the works of theRoman/Neapolitan group
represented by A. Scarlatti, Mancini and Sarro. Nevertheless,this
section of Add. MS. 71535 is integrated into the volume: it
consists of the samepaper as the following sections. It is
therefore not a separate unit, although it could bea faithful copy
of such a unit. It was copied after its six fascicles had been
bound together,because the calligraphic initials for each cantata
have all left imprints of ink on theiropposite pages. The remainder
of the manuscript has no calhgraphic initials.
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The hand of this scribe is also found in another Italian
manuscript volume: London,Royal Academy of Music (GB-Lam), MS. 127.
This is a miscellaneous collection offifteen Italian cantata and
serenata manuscripts. It belonged to Edmund ThomasWarren-Horne
{circa 1730-94), from 1761 secretary of the Noblemen's and
Gentlemen'sCatch Club, a well-known collector who owned other
Italian vocal music manuscripts,many of which are now in the
British Library. GB-Lam 127 was probably boundtogether after the
mid-eighteenth century. The contents all date from circa
1695-1710,and come mostly from Rome, but some from Naples and
Venice. On ff. 115-126 thereis an anonymous cantata resembling the
style of Francesco Mancini, 'Delle Gallicheschiere vero terror
Marlbrough invitto', in honour of a victory of the Duke
ofMarlborough (1705?). An attributed Mancini cantata (ff. 75-82),
Disperazione perGelosia, is dated '1706'. Apart from Alessandro
Scarlatti, Nicola Porpora, Antonio Biffiand Giovanni Bononcini, the
minor Roman composers Giuseppe Jacobelli and GregorioCola are
represented, the latter apparently as compiler or supervisor of at
least some ofthe Roman fascicles. One of the scribes is almost
certainly Giuseppe Antonio Angelini,who worked for Marquis Ruspoli
and other Roman patrons. The first work in thecollection (ff.
1-16), the cantata 'Io che lontan dai core' by F. A. Pistocchi, is
copied byour scribe A who entitles it Cantata Nuoua di Pistocchino.
The identity of the hand withthat of Add. MS. 71535 is certain,
although GB-Lam 127 is a manuscript of much largersize, circa 205 x
272 mm. The watermark of this first fascicle, ' fleur-de-lys in
doublecircle', is similar or even identical to several other
fascicles in GB-Lam 127, comprisingthe Marlborough cantata and some
undoubtedly Roman works such as those by Cola andJacobelli.
The calligraphic features of this scribal hand, some of them
unusual, can be seen infigs. I and 2: clefs, rest signs, custos,
continuation dashes for the text, the shape of thedouble 'ss' in
'Sassone' resembling a lying '8 ' , etc. In addition, this scribe
cultivates akind of personal trademark. It is an amusing ornament
attached to the last doublebarlines of arias above and below the
word ' Da Capo. \sic). On each stave, a criss-crossedline continues
to the right, ending in a fish-bubble filled with dots, sometimes
resemblinga little face. Furthermore, the Pistocchi cantata has
exactly the same type of initial as thelarge calligraphic initials
seen in Add. MS. 71535, suggesting that it was scribe A whodrew
them.
The most singular aspect of this scribe's work, however, is the
textual orthography.As seen in figs, i and 2, there is a profusion
of apostrophes, accents or little dots afterwords, whether or not
regular Italian spelling calls for such signs in these positions.
Forexample, the first page of 'Se pari e la tua fe' (thus
ordinarily spelled in Italianmanuscripts) has superfluous dots or
apostrophes after 'Del', 'Hendel', 'al', 'ch'o' and'sen'. Only in
'del' and 'sen' is there a philological justification for an
apostrophe.Usually, Italians would omit these as well. The
necessary accents on ' e ' and 'fe' are ofcourse present and are,
as usual, not distinguished in shape from the apostrophes.
Thisscribal habit recurs identically in GB-Lam 127. It gives the
impression of a hypercorrect,learned or idiosyncratic approach. The
scribe's Italian spelling is otherwise impeccable.
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Of the two cantata copies with Handel's name, that of 'Se pari'
(HWV 158) shouldbe accorded considerable authority. The copy
differs from all the three versionsdescribed in Hdndel-Handbuch,
vol. ii (pp. 580-2). The catalogue identifies the versioncopied by
Angelini for Ruspoli in August 1708 (Munster, Bischofliches
Priesterseminarund Santini-Sammlung, Santini-Bibliothek, 1898) as
the primary one, HWV 158a; butit is established that Handel had
already revised the lost autograph by the time Angelinicopied it.
Thus HWV 158a is really a second version, distinguished from the
original bythe replacement of the recitative 'E penar per chi
s'ama' with 'Si, si, questa sia solo',and by the change of the
second aria text from 'Non s'afferra d'Amore il porto' to'Giunge
ben d'amore in porto'. In Add. MS. 71535, we have the original
version-without the Ruspoli revisions of HWV 158a, without the
later mistakes constitutingversion HWV 158b, or the further
revisions present in HWV 158c. This original versionalso exists in
Add. MS. 14212 (no. i), a Neapolitan collection sharing at least
one scribalhand with GB-Lam 127, and perhaps in other sources. The
work itself is first mentionedin the Ruspoli accounts of September
1707: the version found in our manuscript maytherefore date back to
Handel's activity in Rome in 1707 or early 1708.
Can 'D'Amarilli vezzosa, mentre in placido sonno' (no. 6) also
be a hitherto unknown,perhaps early Roman work by Handel?^ The text
is slightly unusual. In her dream,Amarilli sees and feels a 'false
image' ('ombra falsa') of Mirtillo; she speaks in her
sleep,complaining about his absence (aria 'Perche omai dividi o
fato'), but then the sorrowwakes her up, and she tries to chase the
phantom away (aria 'Partite da me, lusinghed'Amor'). As seen in the
thematic catalogue in the Appendix, the first aria adopts anexcited
idiom quite familiar from Handel and his Roman contemporaries -
with the veryactive bass figurations, the energetic 3/8-rhythm and
a good deal of chromaticism in bothparts. The second aria, however,
represents a rhythmic-melodic type almost unknown inearly Handel -
a rocking, cantabile melody in 3/4 and 'tempo giusto' which is to
beinterpreted here as 'not too slow', i.e. andante or allegro
moderato. Handel used 3/4mostly for slower tempi and more serious
moods. The melos of'Partite da me' is triadic,gestural and
undeniably galant, for example in the repeated, sighing
appoggiaturas of'lusinghe, partite, da me, da me' (bb. 13-21). The
repetitions of these bars provide anexample of bad text setting.
There is exactly one Handel piece that could be comparedwith this
aria: the waltz-like aria ' Amo Tirsi' in Corfedele, HWV 96, no. 11
(later usedfor 'As when the dove' in Acis and Galatea). In 'Partite
da me', however, the musicalgrammar of the passage that comes
closest to HWV 96 (bb. 34-44) is hopelessly wrecked.To this may be
added the silly pedal point of bars 30-33- The little cadential
flourish ofbars 8 etc., resembling the quavers in the first bar
of'Amo Tirsi', recurs eight times asa cadential approach in
'Partite da me', and there is a very similar cadential stereotypein
the first aria. When taking into account the compositional detail
of the whole cantata,including some ungrammatical dissonances in
the recitatives and much over-ambitiousgesticulating in the melodic
line, we must conclude that the piece is not by Handel. Itis,
however, so ambitious and 'modern' in its stylistic outlook, while
apparently imitatingknown Handel ideas, that it would fit his
Italian competitors in the Roman arena oUirca
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1707 - Mancini, Scarlatti, Bononcini, etc. -even less well. It
suggests the hand of animmature composer of the generation after
Mancini or Handel - or of a gifted amateurwho knew and appreciated
Handel's cantata music, perhaps through experience as asinger.
Whether this musician was an Italian is by no means certain.
IV
It is difficult to formulate a conclusion from evidence so
contradictory. We have amanuscript collection completed no earlier
(and probably not much later) than 1720 byan experienced scribe B
who was helped by, or who supervised, two other scribes, C andD.
The beginning of the manuscript, copied on the same paper as the
remainder, isformed by a small collection of six cantatas, the work
of scribe A who had been activein Rome, circa 1705-10. It is scribe
B who controlled the manuscript after this work wasdone, and
perhaps before. The provenance of the paper itself is uncertain. We
shouldstart with the evidence of the opera arias. The Orlandini
arias of 1720 could link themanuscript either with Florence, where
he was the leading musician, or with Turin,where the arias were
performed. But if 'Se si potesse amar' is by Fiore - as are
twocantatas in two other distinct sections of the book - this might
rather connect the wholemanuscript with that composer. The first
work of the volume is by him. The ModeneseLeporati and the
Neapolitan( ?) de Leonardis may be random appearances,
whileBonucelli cannot be located at present.
The connection with Rome through scribe A must be emphasized,
but scribes B, Cand D are most probably not Roman (nor Neapolitan);
their hands are very differentfrom the style of Roman/Neapolitan
manuscripts oi circa 1720. Also, the selection ofcantatas offered
by scribes B and C speaks against Southern origin: too little
Scarlatti andMancini; no Gasparini or Sarro. Moreover, the only
piece by Gasparini, who thendominated secular vocal music in Rome,
is an aria not found in any of his Roman operas.That the volume was
in Florence in 1723 speaks for its origin in that city.
Nevertheless,not only the presence of a Roman hand must then be
explained but also the appearanceof compositions by Fiore in two if
not three distinct sections of the volume. Nothing isknown that
places this composer in Florence around that time. If the
manuscript wascopied in Turin, however, only the Roman hand needs
an explanation. In that case, theappearances of both Fiore and
Orlandini would be unsurprising, while the transfer of thecompleted
volume to Florence could have happened through Orlandini or some of
hisopera singers returning to Florence after the 1720 Turin
season.
For the Florence/Turin hypotheses, the presence of hand A would
imply either thatthis scribe or at least his or her copy travelled
North from Rome around 1720, or viceversa that the paper was
carried to Rome (still blank) by a visitor from Florence or
Turin.The latter could either have been scribe B, or a patron who
later hired B to fill his book.We do not know whether Willoughby
Bertie completed a Grand Tour of the cities inquestion - and in
this order - but it seems rather unlikely that he should have
carriedpaper around in order to have music copied on it, instead of
buying ready-made
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manuscripts as were available in many centres. Also, if the
manuscript was a kind ofmusical commonplace book of a travelling
gentleman, its contents would be morerandom, and would perhaps
include more famous material.
There is a simple explanation how the manuscript could have been
begun in Rome andthen transferred to Turin. Stefano Andrea Fiore
produced an opera in Rome in 1720:Uinnocenza difesa, given at the
Teatro della Pace as the second carnival opera in thatyear.
Orlandini, by contrast, was not active in Rome between 1717 and
1722. Thus, Fiorehimself or a musician associated with him could
have carried the manuscript from Rome,where the first six cantatas
were entered, back home, where local musicians filled thebook with
more cantatas and a few recent opera gems, including Orlandini's
arias fromthe same season. The whole manuscript then passed into
the hands of the Orlandini* troupe' and with them to Florence. The
idea is alluring that the first cantata in the book,Amante in
Prigione a Fillip should have been copied for the composer himself
in Romein 1720. Perhaps this attractive work was composed or
performed there. (No equivalentexplanation is available for a
transfer of the book from Rome to Florence.) Furtherresearch is
evidently needed, however, particularly the identification of the
remainingopera arias. The central mystery of Add. MS. 71535 is the
identity of scribe A, an expertmusic copyist who drew calligraphic
initials, had some connection with Pistocchi, hadaccess to
authentic as well as false Handel cantatas from the Ruspoli period,
and sportedan extremely academic form of Italian orthography.
Probably, it would be too speculativeto connect the surname of the
soprano who sang Orlandini's 'Tra tempeste', AgneseAngelini, with
that of Ruspoli's famous amanuensis, Giuseppe Antonio Angelini.
The newly acquired manuscript puts into focus our insufficient
knowledge of Italianvocal music around 1720. It confronts us with
an English nobleman in Florence, somefashionable songs from Venice
and Rome, a fine composer from Turin, a new topicalcantata from
'Austrian' Naples, a pedlar of true as well as false Handel, and -
LorenzoBonucelli. ^
In May 1995, I chanced upon other music by Lorenzo Bonucelli
while researchingItalian opera manuscripts at the Berkeley Music
Library (see John A. Emerson, CatalogofPre-igoo Vocal Manuscripts
in the Music Library, University of California at Berkeley,UC
Catalogs and bibliographies, vol. iv (Berkeley, 1988)). MS. 36 of
the collection,'Cantate e Arie di Diversi Autori N° VIF, may once
have belonged, as did othermanuscripts at Berkeley, to Cavaliere
Bartolomeo Nucci of Pescia (Tuscany), floruit1717-49. Folios 13-44
of MS. 36 contain an anonymous 'Sonata per Cimb(alo)' (ff.i9-2obis)
and the following solo cantatas: 'Fileno, idolo mio' by Fiore (=
No. 11 inAdd. MS. 71535); 'E qual legge m'imponi' by 'Sr:
Bonucelli'; Xh'io respiri' byMancini; 'Belle fiamme del sen', dated
' 1717' and bearing the monogram 'L. B.'; 'Mirala nel verde prato',
monogram 'F . L. B. ' ; 'Di pad fiamma', monogram 'F . L. B.';
'OhNumi eterni' by ' Sassone' (Handel's Lucrezia cantata, HWV 145,
transposed to D). Theapparent Tuscan connections of the manuscript
might extend to Add. MS. 71535. The
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three pieces headed 'L. B.' or 'F. L. B.' are all copied by the
same hand and may beby Bonucelli. I hope to dedicate a separate
publication to this intriguing composer.
APPENDIXTHEMATIC INDEX OF UNIDENTIFIED PIECES IN BRITISH
LIBRARY,
ADD. MS. 71535
No. I.
6 6
No. 4.
Ch'io re-spi-ri, ch'io vi-va?
iU - na ca-ra ed u - na in - gra - ta
No. 5.
'̂ rVis - si gran tem-po, oa - ma-ra ri-mem-bran-za
No. 6.
^D'A - ma- ril - Ii vez - zo - sa. tnen-tre in pla-ci-do son-
no
13 bars
Per-chd mai di - vi - di, 0 fa-to, dal mio sen
Spiritoso 64 bars
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No. 6 (cont.)
Di -cea di piii, mail duo-lo
8 bars
Tempo giusto
Par - ti - te da me,— lu - sin-ghe d'A - mor, lu - sin-ghe.
par-
15
r I f I r I I , . ' r ^f P ^=^
- l i - t e da me— da me— par - Ii - t e _ da_ m e , _ iu -
sin-ghe_ d'A - mor.
^'LI- r p tg^^ ? r ir J u22
8=tPar-
r Tr If r r ir r r r r f i r
r r If r r ly TJ u j r H. Jr r- ti - te da me,— lu - sin-ghe d'A
- mor, da me.— par - ti - te, par -
J J i j J I J J r T r
3,7
J r If r r |,i,i. r M. r r u? Ju- ti - te, lu - sin-ghe. lu -
sin-ghe, par - ti - te da me, - da me, lu - sin-ghe_ d'A - mor.
r V r J i r r n r i97 bars
-
No. II
pi r rFi-le-no. i -do- lo mi - o. vor-rei al - me-no
No. 12.
A la-sciardei Se- b e - to le for-iu -na - [ e a -re -
No. 13.
En-tro un bo-schet-to a - pri - co
No. 14.
ff ^Daquel-I'al- tabel-ti, per me fa - ta - le
No. 15.
Pian ge laron-di - nel - la
LUUNo. 16.
Se con un lun-go pian - ge-re
r r f rLJ
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No. 17.
^
E que -sto6A-mor, e quan-doa se li chia-ma
No. 18.
E sem-pre. e quan-do par-ti
No. 19.
ver che a noi vi - ci -na
No. 22.
Voi la - ce - te?
(Se si potesse
No. 24.
(Se que! la
6 6 6 7 7
No. 27.
(In me se vo'
No. 28.
(Languidelto
2 0 0
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1 G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, ed. VicaryGibbs, vol. i
(London, 1910), pp. 47-8.
2 I am most grateful to the Musicians BenevolentFund for drawing
my attention to the manuscriptbefore the sale, and to Arthur Searle
of theBritish Library for his encouragement and helpin studying it
after acquisition.
3 An isolated number ' i. ' , has been added in inkin the upper
left corner of f i.
4 Edward Heawood, Watermarks in Paper mainlyof the ijth and i8th
Centuries (Hilversum, 1950).A related but different watermark is
no. 559{Genoa 1737) in W. A. Churchill, Watermarks inPaper in
Holland, England, France, etc., in theXVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries,
and their Inter-connection (Amsterdam, 1935).
5 See Eleanor Selfridge-Field, The Works of
Benedetto and Alessandro Marcello. A ThematicCatalogue (Oxford,
1990).
6 I owe my warmest thanks to Prof. FrancescoGiuntini, Pisa, for
the identification of theMancini cantata (in Naples, Biblioteca
delConservatorio di Musica 'S . Pietra Majella',MS. C. 184). He
also confirmed the identi-fication of the Scarlatti cantata, which
is fur-thermore present in Add. MS. 31512, no.7 (f.27).
7 Bernd Baselt, Handel-Handbuch, vol. ii (Leipzig,1984)
(thematic catalogue of oratorios, vocalchamber works and sacred
music), pp. 462-605.
8 This solo cantata has nothing in common with //duello amoroso
('Amarilli vezzosa, appunto'),HWV 82.
2 0 1