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

196

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

197

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

199

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

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