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Le istitutioni harmoniche

Description: This is a 1562 copy of "Le istitutioni harmoniche," one of the most influential music theory treatises written by Gioseffo Zarlino. The first edition appeared in Venice in 1558. The treatise, divided in four parts, includes theoretical and practical elements of music. The first two parts discuss philosophical, cosmological and mathematical aspects of music, Greek tonal system and tuning. The third and fourth parts cover the rules of counterpoint and modes, respectively. This copy bears a dedic… more
Date: 1562
Creator: Zarlino, Gioseffo, 1517-1590.

Il primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci

Description: This partbook contains the "quinto" part for "Il Primo Libro de Madrigali a Cinqve Voci, con Tre Sesti, et Tre Dialoghi a Otto, Nouament e da lui Composti, & per Antonio Gardano dati in luce." Carli dedicated his First Book of Madrgials "all' Illustrissimo Signor Conte Alfonso Gonzaga Conte di Nuuolara." A table of contents at the end of the partbook lists the madrigals alphabetically in three categories: five-voice pieces, six voice pieces, and eight-voice dialoghi.
Date: 1567
Creator: Carli, Gierolamo, b. ca. 1530
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Prattica di musica, utile et necessaria si al compositore per comporre i canti suoi regolatamente, si anco al cantore per assicurarsi in tutte le cose cantabili

Description: This book is the first part of Lodovico Zacconi's "Prattica di musica," published in 1596. The contents of this book are divided in four parts covering: the history of music, definition of musical terms, introduction to musical notation, modes, time and prolation, rules of counterpoint, musica ficta, classification of musical instruments, and proper manner of singing polyphonic works and musical ornaments. A second part, "Prattica di musica seconda parte," was published in Venice in 1622. The… more
Date: 1596
Creator: Zacconi, Lodovico, 1555-1627.

Finta pazza, drama.

Description: Although Sacrati’s La finta pazza (1641) was immensely popular and influential, the opera has received little discussion in modern scholarship, due in large part to the absence of the music (even the number of extant copies of librettos is very small). Since Lorenzo Bianconi discovery of a score that was used for traveling productions, the opera has received increasing attention.
Date: 1644
Creator: Strozzi, Giulio, 1583-1652
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La Geneviefa

Description: This is a ca. 1685 copy of the three-act libretto of "La Geneviefa" by Girolamo Gigli. The work was dedicated to Prince Francesco Maria of Toscana. The Sienese composer Giuseppe Fabbrini set the libretto to music for an opera staged at the theater of the Collegio Tolomei in Siena. Although the music of the opera is lost, the remark, "Il Sign. Giuseppe Fabrini, che ha data l'anima al verso con l'armonia della musica ..." in the preface of the libretto confirms Fabbrini's setting it to music. C… more
Date: 1685
Creator: Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722

Forza del sangue, e della pietà; drama per musica

Description: 1686 libretto for Giuseppe Fabrini's opera La forza del sangue, e della pietà. The music for all of Giuseppe Fabrini’s operas, including La forza del sangue e della pietà, is lost. However, the libretti by Gerolamo Gigli, have been preserved for these dramas that were performed at the Collegio Tolomei in Siena. La forza del sangue e della pietà translates as “The Force of Blood and Pity.”
Date: 1686
Creator: Fabrini, Giuseppe & Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722
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La fede ne' tradimenti

Description: This is a 1689 copy of Girolamo Gigli's three-act libretto for the opera "La Fede ne' tradimenti," set to music by Giuseppe Fabbrini for the 1689 Carnival season at the Collegio Tolomei in Siena, Italy.
Date: 1689
Creator: Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722
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Amore fra' gl'impossibili

Description: According to Grove Music, Gigli's 'Amore fra gli impossibili' is an eccentric work where "the pastoral setting is disturbed by mythological references and the addition of the characters Don Chisciotte and Coriandolo, in an ironic and grotesque atmosphere."
Date: 1693
Creator: Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722 & Campelli, Carlo
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Rutzvanscad, il giovine

Description: This is a copy of Cattuffio Panchianio's "Rutzvanscad, il Giovine," a parody of Greek tragedy. The library's copy is bound with the libretto of Giovanni Battista Casti's "Prima la musica e poi le parole." Clarification notes relating to terms and characters of the tragedy appear on the back of p.79 together with a list of printing errors.
Date: 1724
Creator: Valaresso, Zaccaria, 1686-1769

Nouvelles Poesies Morales sur Les Plus Beaux Airs de la Musique Francoise et Italienne avec la Basse.: Fables Choisies Dans le gout de M. De La Fontaine, Sur des Vaudevilles & petits Airs aisés à chanter, avec leur Basse & une Basse en Musette. Recueil I. 6 liv. broché.

Description: This score is a collection of poetry and set to music including moral fables (marked on the table of contents with an asterisk). Each piece has words written with musical lines in treble, bass, or a combination of both. Includes a preface ('Avis.') and table of contents for the movements prior to page 1 for each of the seven collections ('recueil'). The pagination restarts for each collection and for the fables which fall at the end of each section.
Date: 1737
Creator: La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695

Giulio Cesare : opera in tre atti

Description: This is a [ca. 1743] score of "Giulio Cesare," an Italian opera seria in three acts by Handel. The performance forces include: flute, oboe, horns (in A and D), strings (violin, viola, violoncello, bass), continuo (theorbo and viola da gamba), harp, chorus of mixed voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), and soloist singers. A list of solo arias and duets of each act appears on p.170 followed by a list containing the names of the subscribers on pp.[171-172]. Two mythological figures [possibly, th… more
Date: 1743
Creator: Handel, George Frideric, 1685-1759
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La favola di Orfeo

Description: Libretto of the opera "La favola di Orfeo" in several verse forms. Poliziano's version of the legend of Orfeo differs from the story in Monteverdi or Gluck's operas. In Poliziano's ending, Orpheus is torn to pieces by the maenads (or Bacchantes). This copy includes Bernardino Baldi's eclogue "Celeo e l'Orto," a culinary poem that describes the production of polenta.
Date: 1749
Creator: Poliziano, Angelo, 1454-1494. & Baldi, Bernardino, 1553-1617.
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Le piacevoli poesie

Description: This is a ca. 1750 copy of "Le piacevoli poesie di Giuseppe Baretti" (The Pleasing Poetry of Giuseppe Baretti). Although Baretti is primarily remembered for his frequent travels throughout Italy, England, France, and Portugal, which he recounted in his "Lettere familiari ai suoi tre fratelli," he was also a scholar, linguist, poet, translator, and journalist. He wrote "Le piacevoli poesie di Giuseppe Baretti" in 1750. The poetry imitated the style of Fancesco Berni, a 16th-century Italian poe… more
Date: 1750
Creator: Baretti, Giuseppe Marco Antonio, 1719-1789.
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Storia Della Musica: Volume 1

Description: Copy of the first of three volumes of "Storia della musica" (Music History) containing eleven chapters and three dissertations. The text describes various topics related to music history including music classification, early music in biblical descriptions, music theories, singing and harmonies, church music, and musical notations.
Date: 1757
Creator: Martini, Giovanni Battista, 1706-1784
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Ifigenia in Aulide

Description: This is a ca. 1762 copy of the libretto of "Ifigenia in Aulide," by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi, the principal librettist at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Cigna-Santi's libretto is an adaptation of Euripide's story of Ifigenia, the daughter of the king of Argos, Agamemnon. The goddess Diana decreed that Ifigenia had to be sacrificed in order to guarantee fair winds for the king's fleet on their journey to Troy. Achilles, rushed to save Ifigenia, his wedding bride, but Diana, moved by Ifigen… more
Date: 1762
Creator: Cigna-Santi, Vittorio Amedeo.
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Catone in Utica

Description: This is a ca. 1763 copy of the libretto of "Catone in Utica," by Metastasio. Gian Francesco de Majo set this libretto to music for the 1763 carnival season in Turin. In this story, Caesar and Fulvio meet Cato, Utica's ruler, and offer him a peace truce, but Emilia, Pompey's widow, suspects treachery and plots to murder Caesar. Cato rejects a Senate's order for a reconciliation with Caesar and demands that Caesar surrender his dictatorial powers. Marzia, Cato's daughter, promised in marriage t… more
Date: 1763
Creator: Metastasio, Pietro, 1698-1782.
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Arianna e Teseo

Description: Libretto of the opera seria "Arianna e Teseo" by Pietro Pariati. The story unfolds in the island of Crete where several young Athenian men are brought to be ritually sacrificed, and Athenian maidens are to be delivered as victims to a minotaur that lives in a labyrinth. Among the Athenians is Arianna, the daughter of Minos (Minosse), King of Crete, who was abducted as a child by King Aegeus, and Teseo, Aegeus's son. Teseo is determined to kill the minotaur in order to save Arianna's friend Laod… more
Date: 1764
Creator: Pariati, Pietro, 1665-1733
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Sofonisba

Description: This is a ca. 1764 copy of the libretto of the opera seria "Sofonisba" by Mattia Verazi. Baldassare Galuppi set this libretto to music for the 1764 carnival season in Turin. Mattia Verazi became a court poet at Mannheim and Stuttgart in 1756. Duke Carl Eugen favored operas with French influence, and Verazi catered to his tastes by providing libretti that deviated from Metastasian opera conventions. In 1762, Verazi and Tommaso Traeta collaborated to create operas following French models. Sofon… more
Date: 1764
Creator: Verazi, Mattia.

Buona figliuola : opera comica

Description: Goldoni turned to Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) as the inspiration for his La buona figliuola. In 1750, he wrote the play Pamela nubile and then turned it into a libretto for Duni. Although Duni’s La buona figliuola (1756) was a failure, Piccinni’s setting in 1760 was a huge success. The hilarious comedy coupled with Piccinni’s sentimental treatment of Cecchina contributed to the popularity of the opera, which still receives performances to this day. Typical of… more
Date: 1767
Creator: Piccinni, Niccolò, 1728-1800; Goldoni, Carlo, 1707-1793 & Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761
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Storia Della Musica: Volume 2

Description: Copy of the second of three volumes of "Storia della musica" (Music History) containing nine chapters and three dissertations that talk about music in relation to ancient Greece, such as Greek mythological figures and festivals, Greek theories of music, and unique features of ancient Greek music.
Date: 1770
Creator: Martini, Giovanni Battista, 1706-1784
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Storia Della Musica: Volume 3

Description: This is a copy of the third of three volumes of "Storia della musica" (Music History), including numerous figures, musical examples demonstrating theoretical concepts of Greek music, and footnotes. It divided as follows: ch.1 - Greek music (pp. 1-24); ch.2 - Poetics, music and drama (pp. 25-90); ch.3 Dramatic poetry (pp. 91-148); ch.4 - Medieval and new dramatic poetry (pp.149-169); ch.5 - Music in Greek tragedy and drama (pp. 170-197); ch. 6 - Illustrious Greek music teachers (pp.198-268); ch… more
Date: 1781
Creator: Martini, Giovanni Battista, 1706-1784
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