Christ Church Library music catalogue: Mus. 998

Mus. 998

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

Manuscript. Cantatas largely for solo voice and continuo by Mario Savioni, Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi and other Roman composers; unidentified Roman copyist, copying probably in the third quarter of the 17th century. Composer attributions were added by the copyist.

Items 1-23 in the inventory below are scored for solo voice and continuo; the final cantata (item 24) is for two voices and continuo.
For facsimiles of items 1, 4, 6, 8 and 22, see Cantatas by Luigi Rossi, selected and introduced by Francesco Luisi, The Italian Cantata in the Seventeenth Century, 1 (New York, 1986).
For facsimiles of items 11, 12, 16 and 17, see Cantatas by Mario Savioni and Pietro Simone Agostini, selected and introduced by Irving Eisley, The Italian Cantata in the Seventeenth Century, 12 (New York, 1985).
Item 3: for an incomplete copy of this cantata by Richard Goodson Sr, see Mus. 51/22.

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

1	Luigi Rossi	Sotto l'ombra d'un pino (Lamento di Cecco)	ff. 1^r-28^v
2		Perché abbagliato io sono	ff. 29^r-40^v
3	Giacomo Carissimi	Ardo, lassa, o non ardo?	ff. 41^r-52^v
4	Luigi Rossi	Tutto cinto di ferro (Lo sdegno smargasso)	ff. 53^r-64^v
5	Luigi Rossi	Torna indietro, pensier, dove si va	ff. 65^r-78^v
6	Luigi Rossi	Pender non prima vide (Pianto della Maddalena)	ff. 79^r-92^v
7	Carlo Caproli	Non si tema il mar infido (La Regina de Tunesi)	ff. 93^r-112^v
8	Luigi Rossi	Nel dì ch'al Padre eterno (Peccatore pentito)	ff. 113^r-136^v
9	Giacomo Carissimi	Toglietemi la vita (Vendetta in amore)	ff. 137^r-142^v
10		Sovra il Calvario colle	ff. 143^r-146^v
11	Mario Savioni	Ove scorre, ove bagna	ff. 147^r-156^v
12	Mario Savioni	Augellin che non ritorni	ff. 157^r-164^v
13	Mario Savioni	Maggio tornò e a Filli	ff. 165^r-166^v
14	Luigi Rossi	In solitario speco	ff. 167^r-174^v
15	Mario Savioni	Fuora del mio regno	ff. 175^r-178^v
16	Mario Savioni	Entro lo spazio angusto	ff. 179^r-184^v
17	Mario Savioni	Volete altro? Morirò!	ff. 185^r-190^v
18	Francesco Boccalino	Conto l'ore del dì	ff. 191^r-196^v
19	Mario Savioni	Se l'amar non è peccato	ff. 197^r-200^v
20	Mario Savioni	Ohimè, Madre, aita	ff. 201^r-203^v
21	Mario Savioni	Io pur ti dissi crudel	ff. 204^r-v
22	Luigi Rossi	Ingordo, uman desio	ff. 205^r-216^v
23	Mario Savioni	Il tuo sonno è mio letargo	ff. 217^r-222^r
24	Giacomo Carissimi	Più non ti chieggio, ò Filli (Dialogo à due, Tirsi e Filli)	ff. 223^r-236^v

Oblong format, 280 x 207 mm. Structure: i + 237 leaves. Textblock foliated '1-236' in ink by the copyist. An index of contents, now defective, was supplied by the copyist on the final two leaves (unfoliated; the first of these leaves, sig. [LLL3], is now detached and loose within the volume; the second, sig. [LLL4], is missing). Each cantata (or exceptionally a pair of cantatas) occupies a separate fascicle; the collation is as follows:

Item 1 (ff. 1-28): seven gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (A-G4); copied on paper ruled with three systems of two staves (as remains the case for all the music up to item 23);
Item 2 (ff. 29-40): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (H-J4);
Item 3 (ff. 41-52): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (K-M4);
Item 4 (ff. 53-64): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (N-P4);
Item 5 (ff. 65-78): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (Q-S4, T2);
Item 6 (ff. 79-92): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (U-W4, X2);
Item 7 (ff. 93-112): five gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (Y-CC4);
Item 8 (ff. 113-36): six gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (DD-II4);
Item 9 (ff. 137-42): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (JJ4, KK2);
Item 10 (ff. 143-6): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia (LL4);
Item 11 (ff. 147-56): two gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (MM-NN4, OO2);
Item 12 (ff. 157-64): two gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (PP-QQ4);
Item 13 (ff. 165-6): bifolium (RR2);
Item 14 (ff. 167-74): two gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (SS-TT4);
Item 15 (ff. 175-8): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia (UU4);
Item 16 (ff. 179-84): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (VV4, WW2);
Item 17 (ff. 185-90): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (XX4, YY2);
Item 18 (ff. 191-6): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (ZZ4, AAA2);
Item 19 (ff. 197-200): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia (BBB4);
Items 20-21 (ff. 201-4): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia (CCC4);
Item 22 (ff. 205-16): three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (DDD-FFF4);
Item 23 (ff. 217-22): one gathering of 2 quired bifolia, then a single bifolium (GGG4, HHH2); unused ruled staves on f. 222v;
Item 24 (ff. 223-36): copied on paper ruled with two systems of four staves. Three gatherings each of 2 quired bifolia (III-KKK4; ff. 223-34); then one further gathering of 2 quired bifolia (LLL4), of which LLL1-2 = ff. 235-6, LLL3 is the unfoliated leaf used to begin the index of contents (now detached and loose within the volume), and LLL4 (conclusion of the index of contents) is missing.

Late 17th-century Italian (Roman?) fine binding of red-brown morocco over boards; upper and lower outside covers elaborately gold-tooled, and enclosing a central panel of a turreted tower surmounted by a bird; gilt edges; fragments of green ribbon ties at the fore-edge and upper and lower edges; inside upper and lower covers lined with marbled paper. Inside lower cover annotated in ink by Richard Goodson Jr: 'R: Goodson Ejus Liber et Patris fuit 1733'. The top right-hand corner of the front flyleaf has been cut away, as if to remove a trace of earlier ownership. Bookplate 3. 19th-century shelfmark: G.10 (subsequently changed to G.9).

Provenance: from the Goodson bequest, listed in Clement 1747 as 'Cantate [later changed to 'Cantatas'] Del Sigr. Luigi Rossi MS No. 46', and in Malchair 1787, f. 5, as 'Italian Songs for one Voic & Bass Luigi Rossi'.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 58.

The description above incorporates information kindly supplied by Margaret Murata and Alessio Ruffatti.

Bibliography:

Alessio Ruffatti, '"Curiosi e bramosi l'oltramontani cercano con grande diligenza in tutti i luoghi": La cantata romana del Seicento in Europa', Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, 13 (2008), published online at http://www.sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/ruffatti.html.