Mus. 994

This is one of the many manuscripts of 17th-century Italian cantatas now in Christ Church Library.

Manuscript. Cantatas by Giacomo Carissimi, copied by an unidentified Italian hand, probably in the last quarter of the 17th century. (This copyist was also responsible for Mus. 992 and Mus. 993.) The volume was bound at Christ Church in the late 18th century as part of an uncompleted binding project intended to protect previously unbound items from the Aldrich and Goodson bequests; for a list of other volumes in related bindings, see the entry for Mus. 3.

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

Oblong format, 280 x 207 mm. Structure: ii + 54 + ii leaves; the textblock is foliated in modern pencil. Collation not ascertained on account of the tightness of the binding, but probably four gatherings each of 6 quired bifolia (A12, B12, C12, D12), followed by one gathering of 3 quired bifolia (E6). Unused ruled staves on f. 40v. Late 18th-century English binding of white parchment over boards, undecorated except for two parallel fillets at the cedges. Spine in contrasting brown leather, with a red leather inset tooled in gold: 'CANTATE / DEL SIGR./ JACOMO / CARISSIMI'. No trace remains of any earlier binding. Bookplate 2 on inside upper cover. There is a list of contents by Malchair on the the recto of front endleaf i. 19th-century shelfmark: G.5.

Provenance: from the Goodson bequest, listed in Clement 1747 as 'Cantate [later changed to 'Cantata'] Del Segr. Iacomo Charissimi / M.S. in Score No. 48 [in error for '49']', and in Malchair 1787 (f. 5) as 'A vol. of Italian 3-part Songs Carissimi'. In Mus. 994 itself, the recto of front endleaf i is annotated 'No. 49' (not in Clement's own hand).

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 57.