Christ Church Library music catalogue: Mus. 377

Mus. 377

Manuscript. Cantatas for two and three voices by Rossi, Cesti, Carissimi and others, copied in score; copyist probably Italian, c.1650. (The same copyist was also responsible for Mus. 996.) For information about the early ownership and provenance of this volume, see below. The music is written continuously across double-page spreads, in two systems.

Items 5, 10 and 16-19 were also copied by the same scribe in Mus. 996.
Items 2 and 5 were copied by Henry Aldrich in Mus. 18, possibly using Mus. 377 as exemplar.

Table of titles and composers in modern form. Display form found in manuscript.

1	Luigi Rossi	Vorrei scoprirti un dì	ff. 1^r-4^r
2		Occhi belli, ohime	ff. 4^v-6^r
3	Luigi Rossi	Tu sarai sempre il mio bene	ff. 6^v-10^r
4		Partitevi da me speranze infide	ff. 10^v-12^r
5	Marco Marazzoli	Amanti, sentite Amor	ff. 12^v-17^r
6		Parlate per me, narrate al mio bene	ff. 17^v-20^r
7		Pian piano mio core	ff. 20^v-24^r
8		Siano pur tutte infinite	ff. 24^v-27^r
9	Luigi Rossi	O cieli, pietà	ff. 27^v-30^r
10	Marc'Antonio Pasqualini	Già son morto e non lo crede	ff. 30^v-33^v
11	Luigi Rossi	Dite, o cieli, se crudeli	ff. 33^v-35^r
12		E di ragion ch'io mora	ff. 35^v-37^r
13		Se saggia vuoi parer	ff. 37^v-40^r
14	Luigi Rossi	Pene, che volete da me?	ff. 40^v-42^r
15		Trè infelici amanti	ff. 42^v-47^r
16	Luigi Rossi	Amor, se devo piangere	ff. 47^v-49^r
17	Luigi Rossi	Amanti, ardire o goder o morire	ff. 49^v-51^r
18	Luigi Rossi	Lasso, benché mi fugga ognor lontano	ff. 53^v-56^v
19	Giacomo Carissimi	Sciolto havean dall'alte sponde	ff. 57^r-68^v

Oblong format, 210 x 160 mm. 68 folios, in two layers:

Layer 1 (ff. 1-56): items 1-18 (= cantatas a2), ruled with six staves to the page. Collation: A8 (ff. 1-8), B8 (ff. 9-16), C8 (ff. 17-24), D8 (ff. 25-32), E8 (ff. 33-40), F8 (ff. 41-8), G8 (ff. 49-56). Foliation in ink added by the copyist, with intermittent additions in modern pencil. The end of the last piece in this layer (item 18) was copied wholly on a verso, not across a double-page spread.
Layer 2 (ff. 57-68): item 19 (a3), ruled with eight staves to the page. Collation: H6 (ff. 57-62), I6 (ff. 63-8). The first leaf is foliated '57' in ink by the copyist; thereafter the foliation is in modern pencil.

Index of contents (without composer attributions) added by the copyist on the verso of the second front flyleaf. Mid 17th-century binding of white vellum over boards; edges partly coloured with red and blue stripes. There are offsets between the last music page (f. 68v) and the rear flyleaf, resulting from closure of the volume while the ink was still wet; this implies that at least some of the music contents were added after the volume had been bound. Mid-17th-century annotation on outside upper cover (almost certainly not in the hand of the music copyist): 'Musica del Sig[no]r Angelo Micheli / Uno de Musici Della Capella / de Reina di Swecia / Upsaliae Martii 21 / 1653 / a 2 et 3 voce'. Annotation on front flyleaf, probably in a mid-17th-century English hand: 'D'al dono di [changed to 'del'] signor Angelo Micheli / uno de li musitii [deleted; replaced by 'di musica', further changed to 'musici'] nella [changed to 'della'] capella / di Reini [changed to 'Reyna'] di Suecia / Upsalia Mar: 21. / 1653'. No early bookplate. 19th-century shelfmark: I.7.77.

Provenance: Mus. 377 almost certainly formed part of the repertory of the ensemble of Italian musicians that visited the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in the two years before her abdication in 1654; for further details, see Webber (in Bibliography below). This ensemble, led by Vincenzo Albrici, included the theorbist Angelo Micheli Bartolotti, who can be identified as the donor of the volume; see above: 'D'al dono di [changed to 'del'] signor Angelo Micheli'. It is not known how or when the volume then passed into English ownership; for some possibilities, see Webber. Nor is there concrete evidence that Mus. 377 shared a common provenance history with Mus. 996 (which was copied by the same scribe). Indeed, it seems likely that the two volumes reached Christ Church by different routes, Mus. 996 probably as part of the Aldrich bequest, Mus. 377 by a different track. In Mus. 377, the absence of any early shelfmark or bookplate strongly argues against Aldrich provenance, and may instead imply that the book reached Christ Church as part of the Goodson bequest. However, there is no mention of Mus. 377 in Clement 1747, or indeed in any of the 18th-century catalogues of the Christ Church music collections. The fact that two pieces found in Mus. 377 were also copied by Henry Aldrich at the start of Mus. 18, probably in the 1670s, cannot be taken as proof that he owned Mus. 377.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 48.

Bibliography:

Geoffrey Webber, 'Italian Music at the Court of Queen Christina: Christ Church, Oxford, Mus. MS 377 and the Visit of Vincenzo Albrici's Italian Ensemble, 1652-54', Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning, 1993:2, pp. 47-53.