oratory music in florence, ii: at san firenze in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Oratory Music in Florence, II: At San Firenze in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth CenturiesAuthor(s): John Walter HillSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 51, Fasc. 2 (Jul. - Dec., 1979), pp. 246-267Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/932455 .

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246

Oratory Music in Florence, II: At San Firenze in the Seventeenth

and Eighteenth Centuries

JOHN WALTER HILL (URBANA/ ILLINOIS)

Who can deny that music history is still largely written as a narrative that

plausibly links together the music that happens to survive ? And when a large body of music is lost are we not tempted to omit a chapter and pretend the composers and their works never existed ?

Historians of music, guided by the availability of surviving music, have generally dropped Florence from their consideration after the period of early opera and

monody. In doing so they have overlooked the very existence of several prolific composers, seriously misjudged the nature of Florentine musical culture during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and thereby lost an opportunity to understand what its musical culture reveals generally about "Florence in the forgotten centuries," to use the title of Erich Cochrane's recent, provocative book.

I am concerned with the oratorio in Florence during the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries because this genre was the most important for the city's last

group of native composers and the mainstay in the Florentines' diet of dramatic vocal music in an age usually thought to be dominated by opera.

The oratorio in Florence has been given its most extensive treatment by Guido

Pasquetti, whose theories can be summarized in the following translated quotations from the second edition of his L'oratorio musicale in Italia of 1914:

Florence, cradle of opera, distracted by the first dissemination of the stile rappresentativo, could attend but little to the oratorio, and only toward the end of the seventeenth century did it begin to cultivate it with enthusiasm, but without playing a truly leading r61e within the oratorian movement. In fact, the Florentine oratorio, or rather the Tuscan oratorio (because in Florence there came together the best musicians and poets of Tuscany) did not have, in the view of whomever considers it well, a particular style that can be called a school as we have seen to have occurred in Rome, Venice, and Bologna ...

The musicians of Florence, if not Tuscany, both composers of operas as well as of oratorios, after Doni, almost all came from the schools of Rome and Bologna ...

The oratorio, as we have said, appeared in Florence about 1690, a quite late epoch, if one thinks of the use and abuse that had been made of it elsewhere, but an epoch quite favorable to it because of the religious politics of Cosimo III (1670-1723).1

1 Firenze, culla del melodramma, distratta dal primo diffondersi dello stile rappresentativo, pots ben poco attendere all'oratorio, e soltanto sulla fine del secolo XVII prese a coltivarlo con entusiasmo, ma senza esercitare, nel movimento oratorico, una vera azione direttiva. Infatti l'oratorio florentino o meglio toscano (perche in

Firenze concorsero i migliori musicisti e poeti della Toscana), non ebbe, per chi ben Io consideri, uno stile

particolare che possa dirsi proprio di una scuola, come abbiam visto essere avvenuto a Roma, a Venezia e a

Bologna ... I musicisti di Firenze non che della Toscana, tanto i compositori di melodrammi quanto di oratorii, dopo il

Doni, uscirono quasi tutti dalle scuole di Roma e di Bologna ... L'oratorio, come abbiamo detto, apparve in Firenze verso il 169o, epoca assai tarda, se si pensa all'uso e

all'abuso che se n'era fatto altrove, ma assai favorevole per la politica religiosa di Cosimo III (1670-1723). The discussion of Florence in HOWARD E. SMITHER, A History of the Oratorio, Vol. I: The Oratorio in the



J. W. Hill: Oratory Music in Florence, II 247

Now this is very interesting, but almost totally fictitious. In part one of this study I have shown that performances of Italian-language sacred musical dialogues, from at least 1613, if not 1593, developed in a chronologically parallel fashion in Rome and Florence, if Florence did not actually lead toward the beginning.2 Oratorio performances at San Firenze, the church of the Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio di San Filippo Neri, began in the 1650s. From the 1660s through the entire eighteenth century, there was a large and flourishing group of oratorio composers in Florence who were, with rare exceptions, native by birth and training. Their music, again with rare exceptions, is lost.

The Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio produced at San Firenze by far the greatest number, if not the most lavish, of oratorio performances heard in that city during the century and a half in question. Therefore the most important key to understanding the problem of reconstructing the history of the oratorio in Florence would seem to lie in this notice from the records of the Congregation:

February 23, 1780: With five votes in favor and one opposed, it was decided that our Father Superior should sell all the old musical oratorios belonging to our congregation, rendered inserviceable by the change for the better in present-day music, and that with the proceeds he should have one or two other new ones [written] according to the present taste.3

Unfortunately we do not know who bought the collection, because the sale was not recorded in the financial accounts of the Congregation.4 If the sale did not take place, then perhaps this collection disappeared, along with most of the music from nearly every Florentine church, during the religious suppression by the French government, 1808-1814.s Whether for the one or the other reason, the Florentine

Baroque Era: Italy, Vienna, Paris (Chapel Hill, N.C. 1977), p.283-89, is, of course, much more sophisticated than Pasquetti's. Smither cites two letters (see footnotes 24 and 25 below) that refer to oratorio performance in Florence during the 1660s. This aside, his treatment offers no other information about oratorios in Florence before ca. 1690 when the series of existing libretti begins. Although Smither jettisons Pasquetti's theory of the

dominating schools of Rome and Bologna, he retains the idea that Cosimo III caused an apparent surge of interest in the oratorio ca. 1690-1725. 2 JOHN WALTER HILL, Florentine Oratory Music, I: Recitar Cantando, 1583-1655, in: AMI 51 (1979), p. 108-136.

3 Florence, Archivio della Congregazione dell'Oratorio in San Firenze (I:Fsf), Libro di decreti C, p.85 (Feb. 23, 1780): "Con cinque voti favorevoli, e uno contrario fM ordinato che il nostro Padre vendessa tutti gl'antichi Oratori in Musica di nostra congregazione renduti inservabili per la Variazione in meglio della presente Musica e che col Ritratto di quegli se ne facessero uno, o due altri nuovi secondo il presente Gusto."

For access to the archive of San Firenze I owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to Father Antonio Cistellini, Proposito of the Florentine Congregation and an extremely learned and thorough scholar of his Congregation's history, who shared with me freely the results of his own continuing researches.

4 A cello that the Congregation voted to sell on May 9, 1787 (I:Fsf, Libro di decreti C, p. 163) was indeed sold on Oct. 31, 1787, and in this case the amount received and the name of the buyer is recorded in the Congregation's account books (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, no. 7, fol. 49r). Perhaps the sale of the music and subsequent copying, or commissioning of a new oratorio was completely the affair of the Prefetto della Musica, and therefore not reflected in the Congregation's general accounts. ' The decree by the French government of April 29, 1808, that supressed all but a few of the remaining religious communities and organizations in Tuscany (reprinted in ANTONIO ZOBI, Storia civile della Toscana dal MDCCXXXVII al MDCCCXLVIII, vol. III [Florence 1851], p. 323-27) called for the creation of a commission that would select, from the books and manuscripts of the various church and monastery libraries, those deemed useful for public instruction. The resultant Commissione sulla Conservazione degli Oggetti di Scienze e di Arti Provenienti alle Soppresse Corporazioni Religiose della Toscana gathered the material, which by 1811 amounted to 15,073 printed books and, perhaps, a like number of manuscripts, into the former monastery of San Marco, where they were catalogued and eventually distributed to the Medicea-Laurenziana, Court of Appeals, Spedale di S. Maria Nuova, Accademia delle Belle Arti, Magliabechiana (now Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale), Marucelliana, Accademia della Crusca, Accademia del Cimento, and Accademia dei Geogofili libraries and to



248 J. W. Hill: Oratory Music in Florence, II

Oratorians' library today contains only nineteen scores of oratorios, one from before 1750, the rest mostly late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century works.6 Virtually none of the oratorios that were once in the Congregation's repertoire have turned up in other libraries.

The shape of the repertoire at San Firenze can be partially reconstructed using 130 surviving libretti, both printed and manuscript, and a series of lists kept by various Prefetti della Musica of the Congregation. The lists record the date, title, and oft cn the composer of every oratorio performed during the seventeen seasons, 1668-1670, 1729-1730, 1738-1742, 1751-1755, and 1758-1764.7 The libretti span the

years 1690-1805, although only from one year, 1693, is there an apparently

the Archivio Diplomatico (now Archivio di Stato di Firenze) according to classfication (Florence, Accademia

delle Belle Arti, Biblioteca, Affari diversi della Commissione sulla Conservazione degli Oggetti di Scienze e di Arti provenienti alle soppresse Corporazioni Religiose della Toscana dal 181o al 1819, nos.150, 34, 474 [all volumes found in the attic of the library without call number]). The various Fondi conventi sopressi, etc., in those

libraries are virtually devoid of music. Nowhere in the minutes, instructions, and correspondence of the

commission, found at the library of the Accademia delle Belle Arti and at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze is there

any mention of the policy toward collecting or dispersing music. The few items not taken from the monasteries

were to have been sold at auction (I:Fas, Demanio francese miscellania B, 21, no. 856), but books not taken were

never catalogued. If the music was not sold at the monasteries, it may have been distribued to the Accademia

delle Belle Arti, which at that time included the music conservatory that is now the Conservatorio della Musica

Luigi Cherubini, the library of which, however, does not hold any music identifiable as coming from the

suppressed churches of Florence; certainly none of it comes from San Firenze. However, the libraries receiving material from the commission were entitled to sell what they did not wish to keep (Affari diversi della

Commisione ..., op. cit.). In any case, by 1814 nothing from the libraries of the suppressed churches remained in

the government depositories (I:Fas, Demanio francese miscellania B, 22, no.514). 6 These are the scores it contains: 1. Cantata a tre voci, << Fede, speranza, amor divino >> del Sig. Nicol6 Jommelli, 1756, con l'aggiunte dell'arie del

soprano e recitativi con strumenti di Gasparo Sborgi. 2. La morte di S. Filippo Neri, oratorio a quattro voci con cori del Sig. Pasquale Anfossi.

3. Componimento sacro per musica a tre, v Adamo ed Eva,> del Sig. Onofrio d'Aquino. 4. [Il Natale, ossia L'Incarnazione], oratorio a tre voci del Sig. Nicolb Jommelli, con aria di Sig. [Giovanni] Gualberto Brunetti. 5. S. Elena al Calvario, nella I parte overtura del Sig. Francesco Bianchi, aria del Sig. Giuseppe Sarti, cavatine

del Sig. Giuseppe Sarti (l'autunno 1779, Firenze), quartetti del Sig. Felice Alessandri (autunno 1780, Firenze); nella II parte, aria del Sig. Giuseppe Sarti. 6. L'Ester, oratorio a cinque voci con strumenti, musica del Sig. Antonio Sacchini. 7. La morte di Oloferne, tragedia sacra, musica del Sig. Pietro Guglielmi. 8. La concepzione di Maria Vergine, oratorio a quattro voci, musica del Sig. Gasparo Sborgi, sola la I parte. 9. [La depositione], oratorio a due voci e coro del sec. XVIII, sola II parte. 10. Salomone, oratorio a quattro voci di Francesco Zanetti, 1775. 11. Jefte, oratorio del Sig. Raffaele Orgitano, sola II parte. 12. L'Isacco, oratorio del Sig. Nicolb Jommelli. 13. Oratorio della Passione di Gessi Cristo Signor Nostro del Sig. Amadeo Neuman. 14. S.Teresa, oratorio a quattro voci con strumenti, musica d'Anton Francesco Piombi [ca.1703]. 15. La Betulia liberata, oratorio a sei voci, musica del Sig. Sebastiano Nasolini, 1792.

16. La morte d'Abel, oratorio a cinque voci, musica del Sig. [Giovanni] Gualberto Brunetti, poesia del Sig. Abate

Metastasio. 17. La morte di Assalone, dramma ridotto alla musica degli Orazi e Currazzi [?] del celebre maestro Domenico

Cimarosa, 1831. 18. Il Gedeone, azione sacra in due atti soli, del Sig. Giuseppe Moneta, Maestro onorario della Real Casa

d'Etruria. 19. S. Alessio riconosciuto, oratorio a quattro voci con strumenti del Sig. Giacinto Calderara, componimento sacro da cantarsi nella Chiesa dei RR. PP. della Congregazione dell'Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri in Genova.

These entries follow the form used in the shelf list kept by Father Antonio Cistellini, Proposito of the

Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio. SI :Fn, Conventi soppresse da ordinare 156 (Filippini 58), Conv. sop. da ord. 175 (Filippini 77), and Conv. sop. da ord. 130 (Filippini 32).



i. W. Hill: Oratory Music in Florence, II 249

complete set of printed textbooks (thirty-five in number).8 The lists show that

during the 140 years in question the Congregation presented an oratorio, in all but

very rare cases a different oratorio, in the evening every Sunday and on selected feast days for the duration of nearly every "winter" season from All Saints' Day (Nov. 1) to Palm Sunday, just as did the Congregation in Rome and, presumably, in other major Italian cities. The minutes of the Congregation's meetings further document this continuing level of activity.9 The total number of oratorios performed during each of the three seasons of 1668-1670 and 1693-1694 were thirty-seven, thirty-two, and thirty-five respectively. The eighteenth-century lists show a slight reduction in the number of performances; normally between twenty-two and twenty-nine oratorios were heard during each of those later seasons.

Using Robert and Norma Weaver's new and extensive research, we can make some comparisons between the number of oratorios and operas performed in Florence during the first eighty-two years of verifiable, annual oratorio seasons at San Firenze.'o During the period 1668-1750 there were usually two public or semi- public opera theaters open in the city, although in twenty-three of those years there was but one, in nine none at all. Six or seven would seem the usual maximum number of operas performed annually there during the first half of the eighteenth century, two or three during the later seventeenth century. At the same time, the twenty-two to thirty-seven oratorios produced annually by the Oratorians, augmented each season by a half-dozen or so offered by Florentine lay religious confraternities," were free and open to the (male) public.12 The concentration of the

8 Twenty-two of the libretti were listed by RENZO LUSTIG, Saggio bibliografico degli oratorii stampati a Firenze dal 1690 al 1725, in: Note d'archivio per la storia della musica XIV (1937), p. 61-63; to these, nine were added by ULDERICO ROLANDI, Oratorii stampati a Firenze dal 1690 al 1725, in: Note d'archivio per la storia della musica XVI (1939), p. 33-35; and two more by M. BORRELLI, Una interessante raccolta di libretti a

stampa di oratori della fine del seicento, presso la Biblioteca dell' oratorio di Londra (Naples 1962). To these, in turn, can be added La caduta de' filistei nella morte di Sansone, oratorio a quattro da cantarsi nella Chiesa de' Padri della Congregazione dell'Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri di Firenze (Florence: Vangelisti 1693), music by Antonio Veracini, I: Fr, Misc. 227.21; and Gerusalemme destrutta da Tito, oratorio a cinque voci da cantarsi nella Chiesa de' Padri della Congregazione dell'Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri di Firenze [libretto] composto dal Signor Antonio Fineschi da Radda (Florence: Vangelisti 1693), GB:Lbm.

9 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 103 (Dec. 13, 1686), "In ordinato con voti uniformi che vi paghino scudi sei moneta al Padre Pref.o della Musica per rimborso dello speso l'anno 1684 nella festa della Concez.ne, e nel Palco per gli Oratorj del 1685." Ivi, Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 47 (Nov. 1, 1689), "Ricordo come in tal sera si sono cominciati in chiesa vechia gl'oratorij in musica con i sermoni per durare tutto il resto dell'inverno al solito, e gli altri anni ancora futuri se piacera a Dio." And further notices indicating similar things are found there in Libro di decreti A, pp. 109, 111, 123, 126-27, 132, 134, 237; Libro di ricordi ordinari A, pp. 123, 156-57, 172, 218.

Concerning periodic curtailments of oratorio performances at San Firenze, however, see footnote 48. 10 ROBERT LAMAR WEAVER and NORMA WRIGHT WEAVER, A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater 1590o-1750: Operas, Prologues, Finales, Intermezzos and Plays with Incidental Music, Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography 38 (Detroit 1978). "x An indication of the activity of these lay confraternities can be seen in the libretto bibliographies by Lustig, Rolandi, and Borrelli, cited in footnote 8, and in the histories by Pasquetti and Smither cited in footnote 7. More about this activity will be found in a forthcoming study of mine. 12 The exclusion of women from audiences at oratorio performances, part of a general Roman Catholic tendency to segregate the sexes at religious functions prior to our century, was, I suppose, so much taken for granted that there is but a single reference to it in all the records of the Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio, and this, naturally, concerns a special exception to the rule. I:Fsf, RicordiB, p. 108 (Dec. [3], 1775): "Si piglia Ricordo che questa sera si fece l'oratorio in musica [to inaugurate the new oratory] . .. Questa sera per sodisfare al Pubblico fzu da nostri Padri accordato di ammettere le Donne ne coretti, e non in chiesa. Ai primi coretti le Dame, e ai secondi le Cittadine, e cid. ando bene a gloria di Dio, e S. Filippo. Questo oratorio si rise il di 8 Dicembre, e parimente si ammessero le Done come sopra, e mai piu andera in esempio, che mai saranno ammesse Donne alli




performances came around the month of December. There was always a slight abatement in the activity during Lent, when performances were given only on

Sunday evenings.13 Thus, far from being the Lenten substitute for opera that the oratorio is supposed often to have been in Rome,14 it was the most accessible and

pervasive genre of dramatic music in Florence during all but the summer months. Of course the twenty- or thirty-odd oratorios presented by the Oratorians each

season were not all new compositions. Most by far had been heard during previous seasons. They formed a revolving repertoire, constantly renewed by the addition of a few new scores each season. Between lists and libretti one can count 223 titles

performed between 1668 and 1805. But information is sketchy for many decades in between. During the period 1738-1764, for which we have the most information, seventy-three titles were added during the twenty-six seasons. Therefore a

reasonably conservative estimate would seem to indicate that about three new oratorios were added to the Congregation's repertoire each year, on average. Projecting this rate of renewal from 1670, when forty-two known titles were in the

collection,15 to 1780, when the collection was offered for sale, we may suppose that about 372 oratorio scores could have been sold in that year. Since typically one third to one half of the titles included in the eighteenth-century lists are ascribable to Florentine composers, we may estimate that more than 100 of the oratorio scores offered for sale in 1780 were locally produced. In fact one can easily list more than 100 titles of lost oratorios by referring to the known production of only the nine most

prolific Florentine composers in the genre.16 Actually a majority of composers, at least twenty-nine of them active in Florence during the later seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, wrote at least a few oratorios." The genre became so pervasive in the musical life of the city that it would seem composers could hardly have avoided contributing to it.

With these general points in mind, I should like to explore in greater detail the

r61e played in this remarkable production of oratorios by the Florentine Con-

gregazione dell'Oratorio di San Filippo Neri.

oratori in musica." Similar restrictions seem to have been the rule at the oratorio producing lay companies, as I

will point out in my forthcoming study mentioned in footnote 11.

13 One can see this in the lists cited in footnote 7. Furthermore, when economizing was necessary, the oratorio

performances during Lent were the first to be suspended, as is shown in footnote 48. 14 SMITHER, A History of the Oratorio I, p. 258-77.

15 Only six of these works are identified by the composer's name: the Santissima et immacolata concessione

(performed Dec. 6, 1668 for the first time), and the Innocenti (Dec. 28, 1669) both by Giovanni Battista

Benvenuti; S. Dorotea (Feb. 24, 1669 and Jan. 12, 1670), Jefte (copied as of March 22, 1671, but perhaps sung

March 3, 1669), and S. Teodora (received from Rome in 1663 [see footnote 25]), all by [Alessandro] Melani; and

S. Maria Maddalena (performed April 7, 1669) by [Piero] Sanmartini. (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini

58], fols. [65', 79r, 72v, 80', 60v, 73r, 75r] respectively.) None of these oratorios has yet been mentioned in the

literature, and none has been located. 16 See footnotes 78-81, 83, 92, 93, 96, 98, 103, and 104. 17 The other twenty are Carlo Arrigoni (1697-1744), Baccio Baglioni (t Aug. 30, 1649), Giovanni Lavinio

Barsotti (ca. 1666-Dec. 21, 1738), Martino Bitti (ca. 1656-Feb. 2, 1743), Pietro Bizzari (fl. 1754-1778),

Buonaventura Cerri (t Nov. 23, 1685), Antonio Chioccioli (fl. 1705-1710), Giovanni Chinzer (fl. 1730-1750),

Giovanni Battista Comparini (ca. 1611-1659), Alessandro Felici (1742-1772), Francesco Garbi (t ca. 1714),

Giovanni Battista Gigli (t Feb., 1703), Bonaventura Matucci (fl. 1740-1760), Giovanni Palafuti (ca. 1674-June 17, 1734), Anton Maria Palucci (1686-1753), Giuseppe Maria Rutini (fl. ca. 1728-1739), Piero Sanmartini

(1636-1700), Gasparo Sborgi (1737-1819), Antonio Veracini (1659-1733), and Domenico Zipoli (1686-1726?).




The Oratorians established a congregation in Florence relatively late (1632),

perhaps because the principal features of their institutions were already in wide use

there.'" Evidently the Florentine Congregation was at first under the control of a faction that mistrusted the introduction of elaborate music.19 Such a faction also exerted influence over the Roman Congregation from time to time.20 An apparent turning point, however, came on November 1, 1652, with this decision:

I record that from the year 1640, when the Fathers moved into the church of San Firenze, until the year 1651, on every evening of a feast during the winter, after having recited the hours in the church as on ordinary days, we went up to a room in the residence where we had a Spiritual Reading. There was a sermon, and then a conference, the whole intermixed with symphonies and other [music] to be sung. Considering that the place was too small [and] in order to conform as nearly as possible to the institution of Rome, this year, 1652, we begin to do our oratories in the church, with the litanies sung in [polyphonic] music before, then a short sermon by a boy, and then a sermon by a Father of the house, with music before and after, which will be for the greater glory of God and the well-being of our souls.21

Since the kind of music used by the Roman Congregation for their evening assemblies seems frequently to have taken the form of sacred dialogues, or so-called

oratorios, by this time,22 it seems reasonable to suppose that such dialogues were used by the Florentine Congregation as well, at least by this date.23 A letter to the Florentine Oratorians bears on this point. Apparently the Florentines had sought the advice of the experienced Roman Congregation. The reply, written on October

14, 1657, by Father Mario Sozzini, obviously refers to dialogues and vividly illustrates the suspicion and worry about dramatic music that continued to influence the development of the oratorio:

I would not disapprove if music were reintegrated into the oratory service if three conditions were met. One, that those who contribute toward the expense take on the entire cost and agreement with the musicians, without bringing in the name of the Congregation or leaving it with the obligation to pay the musicians. The second, that those who contribute do nothing without the consent of the Padre Prefetto della Musica, and of the Congregation, concerning the quality of the compositions, their length, their worldliness, the hour [of the performances], and [the suitability to] the time [of year]. The third, that the Vanity of the Music does not distract from the devotion of the oratory service, as to some extent the Devil

18 HILL, "Recitar Cantando," p. 108ff. Other reasons are suggested by ANTONIO CISTELLINI, Una pagina di storia religiosa di Firenze nel secolo XVII, in: Archivio storico italiano, pubblicato dalla Deputazione Toscana di Storia Patria CXXV (1967), p. 185-245. '9 ANTONIO CISTELLINI, I primordi dell'Oratorio filippino in Firenze, in: Archivio storico italiano, pubblicato dalla Deputazione Toscana di Storia Patria CXXVI (1968), p. 194, 198. '2 SMITHER, A History of the Oratorio I, p. 160-61. 21 I:Fsf, Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 22: "Addi [primo] di 9bre 1652. Ricordo come essendosi continuato dall'anno 1640, che i Padri tornorno ad habitare a San Firenze fino all'anno 1651, che le sere di festa nell'inverno, dopo essersi fatto l'ore in Chiesa come ne' giorni feriali si saliva in una sala di casa dove fatta una Lezzione Spirituale, si faceva un Sermone, e poi la conferenza tramezzato il tutto con Zinfonie, e altre cantare; considerando, che il Luogo era troppo angusto, per conformarsi piu che si puo all'instituto di Roma q[ues]t anno 1652 si cominciono a fare gli Oratorij in Chiesa con cantare prima le Litanie in musica, e poi un Sermoncino d'un fanciullo, e poi un sermone d'un Padre di casa con la musica avanti, e dopo, il che sia tutto a maggior gloria di Dio, e salute dell'anime." ' SMITHER, A History of the Oratorio I, p. 164-206. 23 There was certainly no lack of locally-produced dialogues in Florence by 1652; see HILL, "Recitar Cantando," p. 128ff.




has gained ground with our Roman Oratory where we sweat blood to moderate the disorder of the music; and we daily lose ground.24

By at least 1663 oratorios had been a regular feature of the Florentine

Congregation's evening services for one or more seasons, as we learn from a letter

written by Zanobi Gherardi, Prefetto della Musica, to Filippo Bini, a fellow Florentine Oratorian who was temporarily at the Congregations's country villa

(Nov. 20, 1663):

At your departure, I forgot to ask Your Reverence about the oratorio, beside restraining myself in order not to interfere with the vacation of which you have need. But since it pleases you, I am sending it, pointing out to you, at the same time, that there is no hurry [to have it] one month earlier or later; just do it at your convenience. I have had a new one from Rome, treating Santa Teodora, sent by the son of maestro Francesco to Father Sera. The music is by Melani of Rome [i.e., Alessandro Melani]. It has not yet been sung.

The oratorios go well. There is a big change. Don Filippo Melani is not working out very well, and in his place I have taken on Cosimo. Likewise we will not have Mazario this winter. Gian Michele is replacing him. [Piero] Salvetti plays very beautiful symphonies [for solo violin, but] I do not know how long this will last, because when the Court goes to Pisa there will be doubts, etc., as to the extent of his going there. The evening of Sant'Andrea Your Reverence will hear [the oratorio of] Sant'Agostino.25

By 1668 the Congregation had amassed a collection of oratorio scores, which they

jealously kept from being performed elsewhere, as we learn from their resolution

taken on January 18 of that year: It is decided that the Padre Prefetto della Musica cannot remove from the house any of the

dialogues that are performed with music in the evenings at the oratory services, not even the

poetry separate from the music, without the permission of the Padre Proposito and the

Deputies.26

The emerging production of Florentine oratorios was shaped, in several ways and

to various extents, by the Congregazione dell'Oratorio as a group and by its

2A I:Fsf, Consuetudini e ricordi della Congregazione, Vol. 91, p. 126: "Non disapproverei, che si ridintegrarsero

le musiche dell'Orat.rio quando vi concorressero tre condizioni; Una, che i contribuenti alla spesa si assumessero

sopra di se ogni peso di spesa, di patto co' Musici; senza, che vi s'imbarazzi il nome della Cong.ne, 6 possa

restarne con obbligo di pagare i Musici. La seconda, che quei tali contribuenti non faccino cosa alcuna senza ii consenso del P. Prefetto della Musica, e della Cong.ne, circa la qualita' delle composizioni, della lunghezza, della

profanitai, dell'hora, e tempo ecc. La terza, che la Vanita' della Musica non distragga la devozione dell'Orat.rio,

come in qualche parte il Demonio ha guadagnato col n[ost]ro Orat.rio di Roma dove sudiamo sangue a

moderarne i disordini della Musica; e ne restiamo con scapito giornalmen." Sozzini goes on to confess that he

personally prefers the simple laude of the type used by Filippo Neri himself, and that, instead of elaborate music,

religious discussions should be held. The letter has been dated Oct. 14, 1657 by Antonio Cistellini, by referring

to a copy in the archive of the Roman Congregation (P.I.5., p. 773). The letter is summarized, and a brief passage

translated, by SMITHER, A History of the Oratorio I, p. 259.

2 I :Fsf, D.11: "lo mi scordai alla sua partenza pregare V. R.a dell'Orat.o oltre di che mi riteneva ancora per non

l'impedire uno poco di sollevam.e, che ella ha bisogno, ma gia che ella si compiace, io l'invio, accennandole

insieme, che non ci e fretta di un mese prima, o poi per Ilo facci con suo comodo. Io ne ho avuto un nuovo di Roma sopra S[an]ta Teodora, mandato dal figliuolo di M[aest]ro Franc. al P. Sera. La musica e del Melani di Roma. Non si e per ancora cantato.

Gli oratorij vanno bene, ci e bene gran Mutaz.e il Melani D. Filippo non seguita altrimenti, e in quel cambio ho

preso Cosimo. II Mazario similm[ente] non l'averemo per quest inverno. Gian Michele supplisce lui. Salvetto fa

bellissime Sinfonie non so quanto durera', perche quando la Corte va a Pisa, si dubita ecc. in tanto si va in la. La

sera di S. And.a V. R.a sentirca S. Agostino." This letter is also summarized by SMITHER, A History of the

Oratorio I, p. 284, where it is cited for the first time. ' I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A. p. 39: "Si stabill che il P. Prefetto della Musica non possa prestare fuori di casa

veruno de dialoghi che si recitano in musica la sera all'oratorio, ne meno ne meno [sic] la poesia separata della

musica senza licenza del P. Prop. e Dep.ti."




members individually. Part of this shaping was done consciously and willfully, at least upon occasion. This is revealed to us in an extraordinary series of commen- taries written by the Prefetto della Musica concerning each of the oratorios

performed during the two seasons 1668-1670. The purpose of the comments was to enable the Congregation to weed out its repertoire. In many respects the guidelines imposed follow the precepts set forth by Father Sozzini in his letter of 1657, quoted above.

The quality of the compositons was measured in several ways. The overall beauty of the music and that of the poetry were given approximately equal weight.27 Intelligibility of the words and clarity in the presentation of the story was highly valued, and the reverse was criticized:

[Concerning the performance of S. Eustachio on Jan. 19, 1690:] It is a beautiful oratorio, particularly the music, and an intelligible story that will always please; and the tenor, who is the narrator [Testo], guides one through all the facts concerning the said saint; and, in sum, this oratorio will always please.28

But otherwise concerning San Genesio (Dec.27, 1668): It is quite confused, and one can question whether it is not rather more the oratorio of San

Bastiano than of San Genesio; and there is also, in the second part, a wife of the said San Genesio, which seems to me to offend a little; and all in all it did not please me in the end.29

In other places the morality of the story and even the appropriateness of individual words and phrases is criticized. For this reason, and also for their suitability to the music, alterations of several texts are recommended and occasionally carried out.30

In two instances, abstract allegories are rejected as difficult to follow and generally less appealing than concrete, human dramas.3' Also in two instances the appropriateness of the prevailing mood of the story for a given day is noted,32 although all of the oratorios seem to have been thought suitable enough for two or more different places in the church calendar.33

The Prefetto, who seems to have been a poet, wrote less specific criticism of the music. He insisted that an oratorio end with a chorus.34 He kept a close check on the

length of the works. Each half was expected to last from thirty to forty-five minutes.

27 1 :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 (Filippini 58), fols. 64v, 65r-v, 67r-v, 68r, 71r, 72v, 80v. 28 Ibid., fol. 80v: "E bello oratorio particolarm.te di musica et una storia intelligibile che piacera sempre et il Tenore che fa il Testo conduce a tutti i fatti del istesso santo in somma q.to oratorio sempre piacerta." 29 Ibid., fol. 67v: "E assai confuso e si puo dubitare che non sia piu tosto l'oratorio di S. Bastiano che di S. Genesio e ch'& anche n Ila 2.a parte una sposa di d.o S. Genesio che mi par che offenda un poco, e sottosopra non mi finisce di piacere." 30 Ibid., fol. 72v: "E bello e Io porrei doppo quelli di prima riga; ci e da rassettare una parola, e farlo dire ultimi

amplessi nel p.o soprano credo verso la fine della p.a parte." Ibid., fol. 72r: "Non e da farsi piu per esser poco morale." Other criticisms of the text and suggested changes of words are found ibid., fols. 65r, 66r, 67v, 70r, 71r, 73', 78V, 80r. 31 Ibid., fol. 64r-v: "Benche di musica sia bello, non sodisfece per esser cosa ideale, e inteso da pochi, et ancora e

lungo;" and fol. 66r: "E bell'opera ma ideale." The first of these oratorios was entitled Vita humana, the other Santissima et immacolata concessione, both of which would be abstract or allegorical, hence "ideale." 32 Concerning two performances of Gierusalem destrutta (Dec. 2, 1668 and Nov. 1, 1669), the Prefetto wrote, ibid., fol. 65v: "La piui malenconica e non e quella sopra le mura quale e bello e per q.to giorno e buono per esser malenchonico;" ibid., fol. 76r: "E al solito bella e piacera sempre ma pero malinconico che per q.ta sera che

precede il giorno de morti torna bene." Likewise he thought the Giudizio universale was good for the last evening of carnival (ibid., fols. 64r-83v). 34 Ibid., fols. 79v, 80v.




Lesser length was sometimes criticized, but greater length could be fatal to the work's future in the repertoire.35 But most often his criticism of the music was couched in terms of the extent to which the relative importance and technical demands of the individual r6les matched the abilities of available singers.36 Difficult

soprano parts were considered a potential hazard, while an important bass part for

Ippolito Fusai, the star of the ensemble during those years,37 was almost sufficient to ensure the oratorio a place in the repertoire.38

Part of the shaping of the repertoire, and certainly many aspects of its

presentation, were determined somewhat less intentionally by economic factors. Funds for the performance of oratorios at San Firenze were obtained through three channels, which, however, had one common main source: the personal (i. e., family) wealth of some of the priests and laymen who were members of the Congregation. Now all members of the Congregation, priest and laity alike, were expected to contribute the rather substantial sum of sixty scudi per year to the general treasury.39 And some contributed a good deal more than that.40 But during the 1660s, '70s, and '80s the expenses of oratorio performances were met by direct contributions to the special treasury maintained by the Prefetto della Musica.41 This

explains why, until 1688, the main financial records of the Congregation make no mention of oratorios. The main records, from 1640 to 1688, only mention Masses and Vespers with one or two violins and a bass viola da gamba or theorbo.42 In 1689

35 Ibid., fols. 64r-v, 65rv, 70r, 71, 72v, 73r-v, 74, 76r, 77r 80, 80, 82, 83v. 36 Ibid., fols. 64r-83'.

37 Fusai sang in the 1661 performances of Francesco Cavalli's L'Erismena in Florence (John Walter Hill, Le

relazioni di Antonio Cesti con la corte e i teatri di Firenze, in: Rivista italiana di musicologia XI [1976], p. 31, fn.

20). He held a position in the Florentine Grand-Ducal chapel from at least 1672 (I: Fas, Depositeria generale 400,

opening 93), but not as early as 1667 (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 1539), to at least 1710 (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 1553, opening

92), but not as late as 1713 (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 1554). During the seasons 1668-1674, at least, Fusai was salaried at

four scudi per month by the Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio, although he was frequently given leaves:

from Dec. 23, 1668 to March 17, 1669 to go to Venice (to sing operas, probably), from Oct. 17, 1669 to March 5,

1670 to go to Milan (more operas?), from March 26, 1670 to the end of that season (to go with the Court,

probably to Pisa), and from Oct. 30, 1670 (to the end of the season?) to go to Venice again (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da

ord. 156 [Filippini 58], passim). 38 For example, the Prefetto della Musica notes on Nov. 1, 1668, concerning the Caduta di Simon Mago, "Mi

parve che riusci bene per esserci il Sig. Fusai quale ha gran parte," but when the work was repeated on March 23,

1670, "E bello per la musica del Basso del resto non conclude nulla, e come non ci fusse il Fusai a cantarlo non

occore farlo." And concerning Juditta, Nov. 30, 1668, "E bello assai ma vuol esser cantato dal Fusai 6 basso

simile perche havendo si gran parte un Basso ordinario la guasterebbe." (Ibid., fols. 64r, 83v, and 65r-v

respectively.) 39 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 66. 40 I:Fsf, Corporazioni religiose soppresse (Corp. rel. sop.), Convento 136, libro 5 [Entrata e uscita per la

Congregazione dell'Oratorio di San Filippo Neri, 1640-1727], records the regular, periodic donations by priests of the Congregation, particularly from Fathers Giachinotti, Gino Ginori, and Burchi, each of whom contributed

from twenty to sixty scudi several times a year to the general treasury, in addition to supporting the oratorio

performances directly, as we shall see. Later in the seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth centuries an

increasingly larger proportion of the Florentine Congregation's income came from investments or land holdings left to the Congregation in the testaments of members. The Roman Congregation, having been established much

longer, was able to rely on these endowments much earlier in the seventeenth century. See CARLO GASBARRI,

L'oratorio romano dal cinquecento al novecento (Rome 1962-63), p. 54-57, 280-306.

41 Father Sozzini's letter of 1657 (see above at footnote 24) refers to this system. The expenses for oratorios for

the seasons 1668-1675, listed in the notebook of the Prefetto della Musica (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini

58]) do not correspond to any payments in the general treasury records (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136,

libro 5). And for the season 1674-75 the names of the seven priests of the Congregation who contributed between

them the entire 167 scudi for the season's oratorios are recorded (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fol.

25r). 42 I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 5, fols. 74r-154v.




the Congregation voted to use ten scudi from the general treasury (the second funding channel) for each season of oratorios, giving the money to Father Zanobi Gherardi, who was responsible for contributing or collecting from members the balance, which appears often to have amounted to at least 150-200 scudi.43 At his death in 1698, Father Zanobi left a large endowment, yielding fifty-five scudi annually, for the performance of oratorios.44 Further endowments for the same purpose came in 1698 from Carlo Perini, a lay member, and from Father Giovanni Maria Mandorli gia Burchi in 1751, the latter yielding ninety-six scudi annually.45 Burchi also left the Congregation his large collection of oratorio scores, which, during his life and after, formed a substantial part of the repertoire of the Congregation.46 As one result of these endowments, which formed the third funding channel, a gradually increasing portion of the expenditures for oratorio performances is recorded in the Congregation's general account books. Nevertheless, direct, voluntary support from living members continued to be necessary.47

Direct support was, of course, the least dependable of the three funding channels, and from time to time oratorio performances had to be curtailed or suspended for lack of money.48 Even in the best of times the support for these performances was far less generous at the Florentine Congregation than at the one in Rome, where

43 I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 107 (Feb. 23, 1689). The actual expenditures for oratorios during the four seasons 1668-1671 and 1674-1675 were (in scudi, lire, denari, and soldi) 24.4.8.0, 236.5.10.8, 206.3.16.8, and 168.6.14.0 respectively (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fols. 45v, 53v, 60r, and 24v). 44 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 123; and Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 156-57 and 172. 45 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti A, pp. 126-27; and Libro di ricordi ordinari, p. 98, 101, 172, and 218. 46 I:Fsf, Libro di ricordi ordinari, p. 98, where all of his oratorio scores are evidently said to fill a very large wardrobe. In fact, the majority of the oratorios listed as having been performed at San Firenze during the seasons 1729-1730 and 1738-1741 are said to be "del P. Fran.co M.a" or "del P. Superiore," which he eventually became, the remainder being designated "dell'armadio," meaning from the Congregation's collection (I: Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 [Filippini 77]). Obviously Father Burchi paid at least to have the scores and parts copied, if not some remuneration to the composers. These expenditures would supplement the 1000 scudi which the Congregation estimated that Father Burchi donated, in the course of his years at San Firenze, toward the annual oratorio seasons (I :Fsf, Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 98). 47 During the five seasons 1729-30, 1738-42, the records show that normally about eighty-five scudi came from the general treasury, while Father Burchi contributed twenty-five scudi (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 [Filippini 77]). During ten seasons 1751-55, 1758-64, unnamed benefactors made up from two to about sixty scudi of the total oratorio expenditures, ranging from ninety to about 200 scudi (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 130 [Filippini 32]). 48 Already the letter of Father Sozzini of 1657 (above at footnote 24) speaks of a reintegration of music, as if dialogues had already been tried and given up at San Firenze, perhaps in part because of financial problems. On Jan. 3, 1674, the Congregation decided to release the musicians who sang at the masses and vespers on holidays because the benefactor who had paid them could not continue with the expense (I: Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 78). In 1686, the financial squeeze affected the oratorio performances as well (Ibid., p. 103 [Sept. 24, 1686]): "Fu proposto il mancamento di danaro per fare le musiche agli oratorij dell'Inverno. Fu risoluto, che si spendano fino al sc[udi] nove dalla Congregazione con voti tutti uniformi." Nine scudi would certainly not pay for a full season of oratorios, and it seems they were curtailed for a few years. Indeed, the decision of Feb. 23, 1689, to let Father Zanobi Gherardi bear all but ten scudi of the expense of oratorio performances each season (footnote 43), begins with words that suggest that the oratorio performances had been discontinued during the preceding years: "Havendo il P[ad]re Zanobi Gherardi considerato che il rimettere gl'Oratorij d'Inverno seg.o lo stile di Roma, che facevamo ancora noj al'anni passati, e per l'altra parte considerando che la Congregazione non puo I'aggrivare di maggior spese, ..." (Ibid., p. 107). On Sept. 2, 1701, the Congregation decided that oratorio performances would continue to the Thursday of carnival (giovedi grasso) or to Lent only when someone meets the expense; otherwise they would end at the feast of the Purification (Feb. 2) as usual (I: Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 132). In fact a decision of April 29, 1711, speaks of the vigils (Veglie) with music that replace the oratorios during Lent (Ibid., p. 160). Later, oratorio performances were entirely suspended for the seasons 1766-67 and 1773-74 because of expenses incurred in the construction of the new oratory (I:Fsf, Libro di decreti B, p. 176; and Libro di decreti C, p. 29). Also see footnote 86.




cardinals and the papacy itself contributed money drawn in from all over Italy and the rest of Catholic Europe.49

One result of necessary economies is a noticeable frugality in the mounting of oratorio performances at San Firenze. Throughout the century and a half under examination, the Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio maintained a nucleus of

singers and instrumentalists who were paid a salary, normally two, rarely a maximum of four scudi per month, from November through March. This nucleus was augmented by a group of substitutes and extras who received a half scudo (3 lire, 12 soldi) or as much as five lire per performance, and by occasional volunteers

who, being amateurs or clergymen, received token gifts at the end of the season.50 The instrumentalists and, at least during the 1660s, some of the singers performed in operas produced in Florence,51 but rarely, it seems, in other cities.52 In any case, traveling opera virtuosos were seldom used for oratorios at San Firenze,53 the

singers, in the main, being local church musicians,54 some with technical limitations that caused concern and affected repertoire management.55

49 Large-scale financial support of oratorio performances at the Roman Congregation's Chiesa Nuova by Pope

Clemente XI, cardinals d'Agurirre, Ottoboni, Marescotti, Pamphili, Acquaviva, and "di san Cesario," as well as

by Prince Livio Odescalchi and Marchese Ruspoli between 1698 and 1723 is mentioned by Gasbarri, L'oratorio

romano, p. 294-95. 50 The documents that mention singers (cited in footnotes 7 and 25) relate to three distinct periods. During the

earliest (1663-1675) the salaried singers were one Cosimo (soprano, 1663-1669), Domenico Querci (soprano,

1668-1675), Ippolito del Cerri (alto, 1668-1675), Paolo Rivani (tenor, 1668-1669), Ippolito Fusai (bass,

1668-1675), Vincentio [Olivicciani?] (soprano, 1669-1670), Pietro Landini (soprano, 1669-1670), Father

Giacinto (mezzo soprano, 1669-1675), and Eliseo Bambagini (tenor, 1669-1670); of the many substitutes and

extras, the most frequently employed were Giovanni Michele [de Bar] (bass, 1663-1671), Filippo Melani

(1663-1669), Francesco Lionardi (soprano, 1668-1669), Father Pandolfini (tenor, 1668-1669), Father Cellini

(1669-1670), Filippo Rustichelli (bass, 1668-1675), and Bonaventura Bellieri (soprano, 1670-1675). In the

second period (1729-1742) the salaried singers were Giovanni Maria Morosi (soprano, 1729-1742), Giuliano

[Albertini] (soprano, 1729-1742), Raffaello [Baldi] (alto, 1729-1742), Antonio Stecchi (tenor, 1729-1742), and

[Michele] Casini (bass, 1729-1742), with the principal substitutes and extras being Giovanni Niccola Rinieri

Redi (bass, 1729-1742, composer, and later maestro di cappella at San Firenze), Pietro Paolo Tei (bass,

1729-1742), and Anton Maria Palucci (bass, 1738-1764). In the third period (1751-1753), the salaried singers

were Gaetanino Lanetti (soprano, 1751-1753, 1758-1763), Batistino Checchi (alto, 1751-1764), Father Antonio

Stecchi (tenor, 1751-1755), [Michele?] Casini (bass, 1751-1755), Pietro Paolo Tei (bass, 1752-1755), del Bene

(voice?, 1751-1763), Rogai (voice?, 1759-1764), and Gasparo Sborgi (bass, 1751-1752, and later maestro di

cappella at San Firenze).

"s WEAVER and WEAVER, Chronology, cite cast lists of operas that include only a few of the San Firenze

singers. Of the nine salaried singers of the period 1663-1669, Paolo Rivani is listed for three operas, Ippolito

Fusai for five, Vincenzo Olivicciani for one; of the many more extras, G. M. de Bar is listed for eight operas, F.

Melani and F. Lionardi for one each. Of the five salaried singers of the period 1729-1742, G. M. Morosi is listed

for four operas, G. Albertini for twenty-four, and R. Baldi for five; none of the many extras are mentioned in cast

lists. During the period 1751-1753, only the salaried singer G. Lanetti is listed for four operas. In addition, F.

Rustichelli, an extra during the earliest period, is given as one of the singers at a performance of the opera Gneo

Marzio Cariolano on June 14, 1686, at the Casino di San Marco in a diary entry that the Weavers missed (I :Fr,

Moreniana, Acquisti diversi 54 [diary of the lutenist Niccol6 Susier], Vol. 6, fol. 361v). The two regular violinists

at San Firenze 1669-1675 were Francesco Veracini (1638-1720, grandfather of the composer Francesco Maria

Veracini) and Piero Salvetti (t May 6, 1697), who are ubiquitious in Florentine performing lists of the second half

of the seventeenth century. For example, they accompanied the operas and plays at the Teatro in via del

Cocomero 1659-1661 (HILL, Le relazioni, p. 36). 52 With rare exceptions the singers at San Firenze continued to perform there continuously from November 1 to

Palm Sunday, season after season, excluding the possibility, therefore, of leaving the city for either the autumn

or carnival opera seasons. The most notable exception, Ippolito Fusai, has been mentioned in footnote 37.

53 The only indications known to me that visiting opera singers were used for oratorio performances at San

Firenze relate to the 1752-1753 season when one "Giacomino dell'opera" appears briefly in the records (I:Fn,

Conv. sop. da ord. [Filippini 32], unnumbered folios), and to the performance of Ester on Feb. 14, 1760, when

there was one "contralto dell'opera pagato da benefatt[or] i"(Ibid.). 54 The following singers, at least, were members of the Cathedral chapel in Florence (perhaps others who sang




It certainly did not help matters that oratorios were only rehearsed once, before the first performance, and never when the work was repeated during subsequent seasons, even though different singers took the r6les. Perhaps further rehearsals would have cost money. As it was, the musicians were not paid for rehearsals, but were only given white wine as refreshment, the expenses for which are recorded in the general and special treasury books.

The number of singers used, throughout the period in question, never exceded the number of solo r1les in a given oratorio, and not infrequently fell short, requiring the performance of two parts, even of different voice ranges, by one singer.56 There is no evidence that a chorus was ever used, the full ensembles always being sung by the group of soloists, as in operas of the period.

The accompanying instrumental ensemble was likewise kept at or near the minimum. During the period 1668-1674 the basic accompanying ensemble consisted of two violins, bass viola da gamba, lute, and harpsichord played by the maestro di cappella. Occasionally during these six years an oratorio required additional viols to fill out a five-part string group. The only wind instrument mentioned in the pay records of these years is one trumpet.57 The organ of the church seems to have been used only once in this period.58 Indeed it was avoided, as

at San Firenze were also-the Cathedral records are not freely available to all musicologists): Domenico Querci (PLACIDO PUCCINELLI, Vita di S. Mauro Abate, 2nd ed. [Florence 1670], p. 262), Raffaello Baldi (I:Fr, Moreniana, Acquisti diversi 54, Vol. 18, fols. 38r-v), Pietro Paolo Tei (ibid., Vol. 25, fol. 7%), Anton Maria Palucci (ibid., Vol. 20, fol. 47%), and Gasparo Sborgi (I:Fn, Poligrafo Gargani, s.v. "Sborgi"). These singers, being Servite monks, were part of the musical establishment at the church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence: Bonaventura Bellieri (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 119, libro 160, p. 660), Filippo Melani (ROBERT L. WEAVER, Materiali per le biografie dei fratelli Melani, in: Rivista italiana di musicologia XII [1977], p. 256), Eliseo Bambagnini (PUCCINELLI, Vita, p. 263), "P. Cellini della Nunziata" (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fols. 47r_52'), and Father Giacinto (ibid., 17'-21v). Father Pandolfini is listed as a Valombrosian monk from the church of Santa Trinita (Ibid., 47r-52v). Filippo Rustichelli was a singer in the chapel of Or San Michele (I:Fr, Riccard. 2696 [diary of Giovanni Battista Fagioli], fol. 97r). Giovanni Niccola Rinieri Redi was maestro di cappella at the churches of San Pancrazio (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 88, libro 18, opening 201- left), San Gaetano (I :Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 1984, under the date Sept. 16, 1760), and Santa Maria Novella (I :Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 102, libro 30, under the date Dec. 31, 1751), as well as at San Firenze, the Cathedral, and the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello (I:Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 161, book 15, fols. 51v-127v). Numerous other singers at San Firenze oratorio performances are designated as priests without mention of their affiliations. 5 In addition to the comments quoted in footnote 38, and by way of further example, these comments of the Prefetto della Musica concerning various oratorios performed 1668-1670 are offerred: "E bello assai, ma vogliono essere cantori buoni perche e un poco gagliardo." "Bello oratorio e da piacer sempre . .. benche con cantori deboli riusci assai bene . .. perche il p.o sop.no non ha parte difficile." "Credo che sia bell'oratorio, ma per haver cantori deboli credo che riusce un poco freddo." (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fols. 66v, 67v, and 68r.) Sopranos remained a problem in the eighteenth century: "Non si poterono aver soprani, perci6 si prese un tenore di piu, et un violino di pi'u" (Dec. 21, 1753). "Non venne Angiolino soprano. In sua vece un ragazzo, ci6d Vincenzino e un violino di piu" (Dec. 21, 1760). (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 130 [Filippini 32], no folio numbers.) 56 "La parte del Figiol Prodigo la fece il Querci in Tenore, che credo che vogli essere un soprano" (I: Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fol. 68r, Dec. 30, 1668). Since Domenico Querci normally sang soprano parts, we must conclude that he was a falsettist. "Cant6 il Basso et il Tenore, o s.do soprano, che fussi il Ferroni" (Ibid., fol. 71v, Feb. 10, 1669). "Il Milani . . . fece la parte del Basso in contralto" (Ibid., fol. 73r, March 3, 1669). One singer also performed two roles on Nov. 1, 1668 (Ibid., fol. 64r). 57 Ibid., passim. 58 On Jan. 1, 1671, a payment of a half scudo is recorded "al [Giovanni] Campani che si chiam6 perche il Maestro son6 l'organo al [oratorio di] Mose" (ibid., fol. 58v). It is clear that Campani was a substitute harpsichordist also at other times, e.g., Jan. 13, 1669: "Il Maestro doppo la p.a parte [del oratorio] and6 a sonare alla Commedia e lasci6 il Campani in cambio suo" (ibid., fol. 69r). The account books (ibid.) record payment of a regular salary to the stromentaio Pertiti for tuning the harpsichord regularly. On Dec. 2, 1693, the old "cimbalo" was sold in order to buy a new one (I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 114). On March 30, 1760, a "spinettone da




in 1669, when the Prefetto della Musica remarks that "the organ was not played as the composer wishes, but in its place Salvetti played the lira !"9 One obvious reason for the avoidance of the organ throughout the century and a half of oratorio productions at San Firenze and, indeed, elsewhere in Florence, has to do with the customary physical circumstances of the performance. The musicians were always arrayed at the front of the church on the altar platform or, if necessary, on a stage or on tiers rising back to the altar.60 The organ, meanwhile, was always located in an elevated loft, at the new oratory of San Firenze, as in many other churches, at the rear, making coordination with the other performers obviously difficult. I suspect that Florentine musicians also preferred continuo realization by harpsichord and lute or theorbo, since there seems to have been no attempt to bring in a small, portable organ for any oratorio seasons.

The instrumental ensemble during the seasons 1729-1742, the second period for which we have records, normally consisted of two violins, one or two violas, one violoncello, one contrabass, a theorbo, a harpsichord, and oboes or trumpets as needed.6' The addition of the viola(s) obviously reflects the four-part string writing that had replaced the trio arrangement of the seventeenth century. The repertoire also quite likely included some older works with five-part string writing as well. Likewise, changes in musical style probably account for the significant addition of the contrabass, reflecting as it does the treble-bass polarity of Italian late Baroque music.

For the seasons of 1751-1755 the standard orchestra appears to have consisted of two or three first violins, two seconds, one viola, one cello, one contrabass, a theorbo

(still!), and a harpsichord.62 The shift from the polarity of earlier eighteenth-century scoring to a mid-eighteenth-century texture thoroughly dominated by the violins, with drum basses frequently played in octaves by viola, cello, and contrabass, is therefore evident. For the seasons 1758-1764, however, six or seven violins were

normally used.63 The reason for this increase seems to be found in a change in the

physical circumstances of the performances. A short digression will be required to describe these circumstances.

In 1672 a new oratory was completed for the Congregation in Florence.64 This church, nowadays called San Firenze, is the northern-most of the two churches with

teatro" was bought to serve in the oratorio performances in place of the "cimbalo vecchio" (I: Fsf, Libro di decreti

B, p. 136). `9 Dec. 25, 1669: "Non si son6 l'organo come vuole l'Autore ma si son6 in quel cambio la lira che la son6 il Salvetti e Monsu Agnolo gli reggeva con il Basso" (ibid., 78r).

60 Special stages or tiers were normally erected for the larger-scale performances at the lay companies, as I will show in my study mentioned in footnote 11. In the records from San Firenze they are often mentioned in

conjunction with the larger orchestras and choruses at performances of concerted liturgical music for feasts of the Immaculate Conception and San Filippo Neri. But see footnote 9.

61 I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 (Filippini 77), passim. 62 I:Fn, Cony. sop. da ord. 130 (Filippini 32), passim. 63 Loc. cit. " A summary of the chronology of the oratories, churches, residence, ets., of the Florentine Congregation is found in ANTONIO CISTELLINI, Momenti gaudiosi e dolorosi della storia di San Firenze (Florence 1967), p. 8-26. A more detailed study of planning, designs, and construction of the first new oratory, finished in 1672, is

provided by ANTONIO CISTELLINI, Pietro da Cortona e la chiesa di San Filippo Neri in Firenze, in: Studi secenteschi XI (1970), p. 27-57.




nearly identical facades that now face the piazza San Firenze. In 1672 the

Congregation decided to produce their oratorio performances there,65 but this

arrangement seems to have proven unsatisfactory, perhaps for acoustical reasons (although acoustics were considered in the construction of the church), since all references to the location of oratorio performances during the subsequent eighty-six years refer to the old parish church of San Firenze, which then stood next to the new edifice.66 But the flood of 1758 forced the Congregation to abandon the old church and to hold the performances in the newer, larger oratory.67 In 1760 it was noted that these performances would cost more, presumably because a larger orchestra was required.68

The new church of San Firenze has a rectangular interior, measuring twelve by thirty-two meters, with a semicircle at the front to accommodate the altar platform. The ceiling is about twenty-four meters from the floor.

In 1775 a second, newer oratory was completed, located directly to the south of the new church of San Firenze and facing the piazza as a twin to it. This church was designed specifically for late-eighteenth-century performances and included an elevated cantoria, above the main altar, for the organ and all the musicians. It can now only be seen in photographs, since it is occupied by the Italian government and is used for the Tribunale Penale e Civile.69

Another result of fluctuations in the Congregation's level of funding seems to have been variations in the abilities and compositional fecundity of the maestri di cappella, though, as one might expect, the relationship between these things may have been a little tenuous and, in any case, is difficult to establish with precision.

At first the Congregation employed (1641-1646) Niccol6 Sapiti (t 1678) as organist and director of ordinary music.70 Sapiti was a prolific composer, and, though one does not know whether or not he set sacred dialogues, it is known that he was also maestro di cappella of a lay company where such dialogues were performed.71 During Sapiti's tenure with the Congregation, however, special music for some very important feasts was supplied by Giovanni Battista da Gagliano.72

In 1647, when Sapiti could no longer continue, the Congregation replaced him

65 I : Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 71 (Oct. 14, 1672): "Si risolve nella prossima Festa di tutti i SS. con voti uniformi di fare gli Oratorj in Musica ne giorni Festivi la sera nella Fabrica del nuovo Oratorio." I :Fsf, Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 38 (Nov. 1, 1672): "'Ricordo come in q[ues]ta sera si e aperto il nuovo Oratorio publicamente, e vi si e fatto l'Oratorio per la prima volta, per continuare solam:te le sere di feste, q[ua]ndo si fa con musica." 66 Ibid., p. 74 (Nov. 1, 1689): "Ricordo come in tal sera si sono cominciati in chiesa vechia gl'oratorij in musica con i sermoni per durare tutto il resto dell'inverno al solito, e gli altri anni ancora futuri se piacerai a Dio." In 1691 it was decided to transfer the oratory services to the new church only for the last two Sundays of Lent (I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 109). GIUSEPPE RICHA, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine, Part II (Florence 1755), p. 259, speaks of the old church of San Firenze as the usual site for the oratory services. 67 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti B, p. 126; and Libro di ricordi ordinari A, p. 123. 68 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti B, p. 135. 69 CISTELLINI, Momenti, p. 23-26 and plates at the end of the book. 70 I: Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 5, fols. 70'-95v. 7 I :Fn, Magl. IX, 67, GIOVANNI CINELLI, "La Toscana letterata ovvero istoria degli scrittori fiorentini," fol. 279r: "Niccol6 Sapiti Musico. Maestro di Cappella del Duomo lascio MS molte opere come Vespri e Messe con altri mottetti per la Capp.a. Mori nel 1678 e vivendo da alcuni per scherzo Scipiti e non Sapiti addimandato." Sapiti served as maestro di cappella of the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello from Nov. 1, 1644 to Nov. 1, 1653 (I :Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 163, no 26 [olim 25], fols. 39r and 142v), concerning the activies of which company see HILL, "Recitar Cantando," passim. 72 I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 5, fols. 71v and 74'.




with Giovanni Battista Benvenuti (tJan. 12, 1691)," one of the most important Florentine composers of the later seventeenth century. Benvenuti's Florentine

contempory, the noted bibliographer Giovanni Cinelli, who himself had been trained in music,74 left this information about him:

Giovan' Battista Benvenuti, not an unlearned musician, who, because of his ability, was elected maestro di cappella of the Fathers of the Oratory of San Firenze, has composed many oratorios for the spiritual vigils [i.e., the evening oratory services] that they hold in their church.75

The Congregation paid Benvenuti the handsome salary of 150 scudi per year.76 During the period 1662-1680, for example, only two virtuoso singers among the musicians in the Tuscan grand-ducal chapel were paid more than that amount.77 Benvenuti's duties, set forth in an informal contract that can no longer be located, probably included composing the "many oratorios" that Cinelli mentions. Only five titles of these can be named at present, however. The Santissima et immacolata concessione was performed December 8, 1668, at San Firenze, the Innocenti on December 28, 1669.78 His San Sebastiano was in the repertoire of the Bologna Congregation.79 A Cantata per il Natale di Nostro Sig.r X.to, beginning "CGit scorsa havea la notte" is ascribed to Benvenuti in a collection that preserves only the text of the composition.8s And an Oratorio di San Filippo Neri by him was heard in Florence as late as April 24, 1728.81 Since the only compositions of his now known to

survive are Latin liturgical works preserved in the recently accessable collection at the Florentine Basilica of San Lorenzo,82 it is not surprising that Benvenuti has never been identified in any lexicon, book, or scholarly article.

At his death, Benvenuti was replaced for four seasons (1690-1694) by Francesco Santini (t Feb.2, 1719), six libretti of whose oratorios are known.83 It is not clear

73 I :Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 8 (Sept. 1, 1647).

74 In I:Fn, Magl. IX, 67, p. 1674, Cinelli names Vincenzio Bacherelli (t 1657) as his music teacher. In his entry concerning himself (I :Fn, Magl. IX, 66, fols. 384r-387v), Cinelli lets it be known that he was at work on his

"'Toscana letterata" during the 1680s.

75 I :Fn, Magl. IX, 66, fol. 420v: "'Giovan' Battista Benvenuti musico non indotto, che per la sua abilita fu maestro di cappella de' PP. dell'Oratorio di S. Firenze eletto. Ha composto molti Oratorii per le veglie spirituali in chiesa loro facevano." 76 I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 5, fol. 100r. 7 The soprano Vincenzio Olivicciani received 280 scudi per year, and Filippo Melani 180 (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 1535,

p. 8; 397, opening 151; 1539, opening 156; 400, openings 57 and 138; 1541, openings 57 and 134; and 1542,

openings 54 and 130). In 1645, the Congregazione dell'Oratorio in Rome elected Oratio Benevolo their maestro di

cappella with an annual salary of 120 scudi per year, but I have not been able to ascertain whether or not Roman and Florentine scudi were of the same value (GASBARRI, L'oratorio romano, p. 287).

78 I: Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 (Filippini 58), fols. 66r and 79r.

79 OSCAR MISCHIATI, Per la storia dell'oratorio a Bologna: Tre inventari del 1620, 1622 e 1682, in:

Collectanea historiae musicae III (1963), p. 150.

o I :Fn, Magl. VII, 432, fols. 22v-25r. The text is 125 verses long, has eleven textual divisions, but is not divided

into two parts. The interlocutors are unnamed, but some of the dramatic dialogue evidently takes place between

shepherds. The text also includes narration and reflection. It is followed by a note: "Questo l'' in Musica a 5 con violini del S. Gio Bat[tis]ta Benvenuti."

8' I:Fr, Riccardiana 3511, under the date April 24, 1728. 82 The nine compositions at San Lorenzo are all Latin motets. For this information I am indebted to Professor Edmond Strainchamps, who has made a catalogue of the music in the archive of that basilica.

83 I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 109 and 115. The six oratorios by Santini known from libretti are: S. Andrea Corsini, p. Antonio Domenico Gotti, San Firenze, 1693 (I:Fm, Melodr. 2234.19), performed under

the title La conversione di S. Andrea Corsini, Compagnia della Purificazione, 1705. (I:Fm, Melodr. 2274.6). La benedizione di Giacobbe, San Firenze, 1693 (I:Fr, Misc. 228.52).




why Santini was soon replaced, but he seems to have ended his career in the less

advantageous r61e of free-lance musical director and teacher.84 Santini was replaced by Pietro Socci, who was paid the miserable salary of one

scudo per month, half the minimum salary paid to his singers and players.85 At the same time the total annual expenditures for oratorios amounted to about half of what had been spent each season during the years 1668-71 and 1674-75 when Benvenuti was maestro di cappella;86 and the number of oratorios performed was trimmed by almost one third.87 To be sure, Socci was a priest and had an income as Prior of Santa Lucia dalle Rovinate,88 but he also kept busy earning extra income as maestro di cappella at several other Florentine churches and oratorio-producing lay companies."9 But he apparently never composed any oratorios himself.90 During his long tenure at San Firenze (1694-1737) the Congregation's repertoire absorbed

many works of non-Florentines and only a few by Florentines-by Giovanni Maria Casini and Anton Francesco Piombi in particular.

Casini, certainly a key figure in the history of music in Florence because of his r61e as teacher,91 composed at least four oratorios, the scores for two of which are known to survive.92 Of these, one, II viaggio di Tobia, was performed at San Firenze

S. Cecilia verg. e mart., San Firenze, 1693 (I:VCini, Collez. Rolandi, SANS-SAPI). S. Tommaso d'Aquino, San Firenze, 1693 (I:Fm, 2274.12). Transito di S. Giuseppe, p. Piero Alessandro Ginori, Ospizio di Giesiu, Maria, e Giuseppe [del Melani], 1707

(I :Fm, Melodr. 2274.17). Il trionfo d'Acab, Compagnia della Purificazione, 1706 (I:Fm, Melodr. 2274.22).

84 Santini served as director of oratorio performances at the Compagnia della Purificazione, sponsored by that company's subsidiary organization, the Ospizio di Giesfi, Maria, e Giuseppe, during the years 1706, 1707, and 1712 (I:Fas, Ospizio dei Melani 3, nos. 264, 468; 4, nos. 369, 381). On April 8, 1708, he played the harpsichord at an oratorio performance at the Comagnia di S. Jacopo del Nicchio (I :Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 1246, no. 10, fol. 283v). During the year 1716 he was regularly paid by the Riccardi family for teaching singing and playing to the girls at the convent called the Quiete, although he was replaced in the following year (I :Fas, Riccardi 141, from Jan. 27, 1716 to March 31, 1717). 85 I:Fsf, Libro di decreti A, p. 115; and I :Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 5, fol. 192r.

86 The expenditures on oratorios for the season 1729-1730, the only one during Socci's term for which such records are known, amounted to slightly over ninety-five scudi (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 [Filippini 77]), while under Benvenuti between 168 and 236 scudi were spent each year (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 156 [Filippini 58], fols. 24v-60r). 87 As mentioned earlier, there seem to have been between thirty-two and thirty-seven oratorios performed each season under Benvenuti. In 1729-1730, however, only twenty-six works were performed, the season lasting only until Feb. 13 instead of to Palm Sunday as in Benvenuti's day. 88 This information is found in Socci's burial record, I: Fas, Medici e speciali 264, fol. 333r (Feb. 10, 1737) and in the diary of the lutenist Niccolo Susier (I: Fr, Moreniana, Acquisti diversi 54, Vol. 8, fol. 248r): "Adi 9 detto [Feb.]. Mori il Priore Socci di S. Lucia dalle Rovinate, et era bravo organista d'Anni 7o." His will informs us that he lived next to the church, probably in a house provided to its prior (I:Fas, Testamenti, Gen.-Feb.-Marzo, 1737, under the dates Feb. 7 and 8). 89 Socci was maestro di cappella, with a salary of ten scudi per month, at SS. Annunziata, from Feb. 1, 1702 to June 19, 1707 (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 119, libro 751, fols. 170' to the end; and libro 752, to the date June 19, 1707). During the late 1720s, he seems to have alternated in that position with Ferdinando Paolucci at the Jesuit church of San Giovanni Evangelista (I :Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 998, no. 90, passim). From 1694 to 1700 Socci was maestro di cappella of the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, where he produced oratorio performances (I:Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 161, no. 15, fols. 60v-82v). Likewise he directed the oratorios at the Compagnia della Purificazione from 1696 to 1700 (I:Fas, Ospizio dei Melani 7, filza C; 8, nos. 2, 6. and 12; 3, nos. 55, 64, 222, and 248; and 19, opening 60; Comp. rel. sop. 1656, fols. 125r and 126v).

90 I have found just one indication that Socci set a Latin text by Giovanni Pietro Berzini in the form of a motet (I:Fn, Magl. VII, 783, second numeration, fol. 79r). 91 MARIO FABBRI, Giovanni Maria Casini, 'musico dell'umana espressione,' in: Studien zur Musikwissen- schaft XXV = Festschrift fidr Erich Schenk (1952), p. 158-59, and footnote 107; FABBRI, Francesco Feroci nella scuola organistica florentina del XVIII secolo, in: Musiche italiane rare e vive (Siena 1962), p. 150 and footnote 9. 92 La fuga in Egitto del Patriarca S. Giuseppe con Giesui e Maria, Compagnia della Purificazione, 1697 (libretto




in 1695, though its subject was traditional at the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, where it may have been performed earlier. While Casini's melodic writing in this work tends toward the vigorous but slightly short-winded style typical of the later seventeenth century, his attention to diction in setting the text, whether in arias or recitatives, is outstanding. The harmony is usually simple, but here and there the

strange chromaticism in conjunction with neo-Palestrina counterpoint, typical of Casini's liturgical polyphony and organ works, appears for expressive purposes. Most outstanding and unusual is the overall design of the work (the text may be by Casini) and his support of the plot by means of controlling his unusual sonorous resources, which affect articulation, expression, and contrast. The orchestra includes two separate string ensembles: a consort of five viols that accompanies the most melancholy arias, and four violins with two cellos for the most cheerful or

optimistic arias. Several extended "scenes" are given shape and continuity by means of a fluid shifting between recitative, arioso, and aria, such as the entire

episode in which Tobia captures the fish, or the father's soliloquy near the beginning of Part II. Twelve of the thirty arias are ABA in design, usually with written-out

reprise. None is strophic. Several ensembles take the form of dialogues in which the action advances. There is no narration, and the frequent changes in the location of the action were not notated in the 1695 libretto, as was later done in Florence. But these changes of "scene," easily followed by a Florentine familiar with the story, are

deliberately organized for constructive and expressive purposes. For instance, as Tobia and "Azaria" (Archangel Raphael transformed) pursue their journey home, the scene changes with increasing frequency between their cheerful dialogue and arias (two sopranos accompanied by four violins and two cellos) and that of Tobia's down-cast and pessimistic parents (alto and bass accompanied by the consort of

viols), resulting in ironic juxtapositions of expression, as when, instead of the

expected festive aria or chorus in celebration of "Azaria's" return with the money from Gabelo, we are surprised by the lament of Tobia's distant parents. Casini's is a

skillfully made and engaging oratorio that deserves revival.

Piombi,93 on the other hand, has left us a dreadfully inept composition, S. Teresa

(1703), that had best be forgotten. His melodic style is marred by the elementary

D-BRD:Hs, A/19015, no. 67; score A:Wn, Mus. ms. 17693), performed under the title La fuga del Patriarca S.

Giuseppe con Giesu e Maria, Compagnia della Purificazione, no year given (libretto I:Fn, Magl. Misc. 279.29). Giacobbe in Mesopatamia, San Firenze, 1698 (libretto I:Fn, Magl. Misc. 279.14). La nascita di Samuele, San Firenze, 1696 (libretto D-BRD:Hs, A/19015, no. 13).

II viaggio di Tobia, San Firenze, 1695 (libretto I:Fr, Riccard. Misc. 226.39; score I:MOe, Mus. F 147). An aria by Casini was included in the pasticcio L'onestai combattuta di Sara, p. Domenico Canavese, San

Firenze, 1708 (libretto D-BRD:Hs, A/19015, no. 102), performed the same year under the title Sara in Egitto,

Ospizio di Giesui, Maria, e Giuseppe (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2234.20). The indication given by CLEMENTE TERNI, Casini, Giovanni Maria, in: MGG (Supplement) 15, col. 1359,

that scores of some of Casini's oratorios are preserved in I :Fn and I:Fm must be the result of error. Such scores cannot be located with the aid of inventories and personnel of those libraries. 93 His birth date and profession are indicated in I: Fl, Antinori 149, "Elenco di scolari delle Scuole Pie," fol. 81r:

"168o. Anton Fran.co Piombi d'an. 15. Era Musico di Cappella del Duomo e poco frequentava le scuole." His death on Feb. 7, 1726, is recorded in I:Fl, Antinori 138, fol. 44v. Eight oratorios by him are known from these libretti; the score of only one survives:

La conversione di S. Agostino, Congregazione di Giesii Salvadore, 1715 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2369.20). La fuga di David, p. Anton Domenico Gotti, Compagnia della Purificazione, 1701 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr.

2369.9) and San Firenze, 1701 (libretto I:Fr, Riccard. Misc. 227.22).




errors of pitch redundancy and non-directionality. One frequently finds an illogical patchwork of the homeliest cliches. His setting of texts is poor, often incorrect in accentuation. His many contrapuntal passages lack dissonance, and his arias begin with a brief, isolated vocal phrase (the "motto") with tiresome predictability. The most interesting aspect of the score to S. Teresa is that its careful markings of soli and tutti preserve the only known indication, among scores or documents, that Roman-style concerto-grosso orchestration was ever used in Florentine oratorio

performances.94 Incredibly, other oratorios by Piombi remained in the repertoire at San Firenze for up to thirty-seven years after having been written, and were performed elsewhere in Florence as well.9"

During the forty-three years of Socci's term as maestro di cappella at San Firenze, three very talented, young local composers, Giovanni Maria Orlandini (1675-1760), Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768), and Carlo Arrigoni (1697-1744), left Florence, at least for years at a time, to seek their fortunes

elsewhere.96 Although each of them composed oratorios, Socci as a rule could not or would not perform them at San Firenze.97 Nor did he present more than one of the

La gioia tra lo stupore, p. Giuseppe Pieri, Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, 1711 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2368.11).

La liberazione di Davidde nella morte di Saulle, Congregazione di Giesii Salvadore, 1710 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2217.15); San Firenze, 1721 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2234.31).

Mose bambino salvato, San Firenze, 1702 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr. 2274.27). La notte felice, San Firenze, 1703 (libretto D-BRD :Hs, A/19015, no. 87); and San Firenze, 1704 (libretto I:Fm,

Melodr. 2274.5). S. Teresa, p. Anton Domenico Gotti, Compagnia di S. Jacopo del Nicchio, 1703 (libretto I:Fm, Melodr.

2234.22; score I:Fsf, no. 14). Il trionfo de giusti, San Firenze, 1710 (libretto, I:Fm, Misc. 319-4.5).

94 Rarely were there more than four violins at an oratorio performance in Florence. See the comments at footnotes 58, 61, and 62. Orchestras at the lay companies in Florence will be discussed in the study mentioned in footnote 11. Concerning concerto-grosso orchestration in Rome, see OWEN JANDER, Concerto Grosso Instrumentation in Rome in the 166os and 167os, in: JAMS XXI (1968), p. 168-80; URSULA KIRKENDALE, Antonio Caldara: Sein Leben und seine venezianisch-rimischen Oratorien (Graz 1966), p. 360-61. 9' Piombi's La notte felice (1703) was performed at San Firenze on Dec. 29, 1729; Dec. 27, 1739; and on Dec. 31, 1740. His II trionfo de Giusti (1710) was done there on Dec. 28, 1740. His La conversione di S. Agostino (1715) was presented there on Feb. 9, 1730 and on Jan. 24, 1740. His La fuga di David (1701) was repeated there on Jan. 19, 1730. I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 (Filippini 77), under the dates cited. 96 See my entries for these composers in the sixth edition of The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

97 One exception to this rule is reported by an agent or ambassador from Modena on Jan. 25, 1717 (I:MOas, Avvisi e notizie dall'Estero, Busta 5232): "Firenze 25 Gen.o 1717 . . . Da PP. dell'Oratorio fui giovedi fatto bell'Oratorio de primi Professori composto dal Sig.r Abb.te [Giovanni Pietro] Berzini, e la musica fu del Celebre [Francesco Maria] Veracini che anco vi sono professore di violino, e vi furono le due Ser.me assieme con il G. Prencipe." Veracini, who at that point was experiencing the blossoming of his international fame as violin virtuoso, having just been engaged by the court of Dresden, had left his native Florence some five years earlier. His appearance at San Firenze, where his grandfather had been a regular performer, seems to have been part of a brief homecoming and farewell before he set off for Saxony. He never appears on the existing records of the Congregation, even though such records cover fifteen seasons during which Veracini was back in Florence (1729-1730, 1751-1755, 1758-1764). Veracini and Orlandini most often directed performances of their own oratorios at the various oratories of lay confraternities in Florence, as I will show in another study. Carlo Arrigoni's first musical composition, according to his dedication on the libretto (I:Fr, Riccard. misc. 226.23), L'innocenza di S. Eugenia scoperta nel tradimento, p. Jacopo Magnani, was presented at San Firenze in 1719. From around 1732 to 1736 Arrigoni seems to have pursued a career outside of Florence, particularly in London, returning in 1736, soon to take up a position as composer to the court of the new Lorainese grand-duke Francis (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 407, fol. 9r). Arrigoni may have either performed at San Firenze or had an unidentified oratorio performed there in 1741, since the Congregation's expense account for February of that year includes four lire "All'Arrigoni, mancia," which indicates that he was not regularly employed there (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 130 [Filippini 32], under the date cited). One of Orlandini's thirteen oratorios may have been performed at San Firenze during his lifetime: the libretto for a performance there of his La costanza trionfante nel martirio di S.



264 1. W. Hill: Oratory Music in Florence, II

nineteen known oratorios by Lorenzo Conti (t Sept. 26, 1740), apparently the most prolific Florentine composer in the genre."9 As a result of the seemingly interrelated factors of the reduced spending during Socci's term as maestro, and the lack of any contributions of his own as an oratorio composer, the repertoire for the 1740-1741 season inherited by his successor included one oratorio that was thirty-seven years old, and thirteen that had been composed at least a decade earlier."99

Socci's successor was another priest, Giovanni Niccola Rinieri Redi (1685-1769) who held the position for a similarly long term (1737-1769).100 Apparently Redi at first drew the same low salary paid to Socci,1'0 and he likewise held posts at several other churches.102 But Redi was an active composer who replenished the repertoire at San Firenze with a dozen or more of his own oratorios,'03 as well as with several

by his slightly younger fellow Florentine Bartolomeo Felici (ca. 1695-1776).104 Redi's merits as an oratorio composer are difficult to assess on the basis of one

aria from a pasticcio, which is all that is known to survive of his contributions to the

Lucia (D-BRD:Hs, A/19015, no. 33) is undated, but another libretto for this work, without indication of place of

performance, is dated 1705 (I:Fm, Melodr. 2234.36). Two other oratorios by Orlandini were performed at San Firenze only after the composer's death: La deposizione dalla croce (1760) was presented on Jan. 29, 1761; Feb.

14, 1762; Jan. 9, 1763; and on Dec. 28, 1763. His Isacco figura del redentore (1752) was done on Jan. 23, 1763 and on Nov. 13, 1763 (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 130 [Filippini 32], under the dates cited). A fourth peripatetic Florentine of this generation, Giovanni Chinzer (ca. 1700-after 1749), did have an association with the

Congregation. His name appears among the lists of instrumentalists accompanying oratorios at San Firenze

during the 1729-1730 season (I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 [Filippini 77], passim). He seems to have played violin, oboe, and trumpet. During that season his oratorio Abelle ucciso da Caino (libretto, Compagnia della

Purificazione, 1731, I:Fm, 2234.4) entered the repertoire of the Congregation on Nov. 30, 1729, and became a

staple, receiving at least eight performances at San Firenze through the year 1753 (ibid., passim). 9' Conti's oratorios are listed in my entry concerning him in the sixth edition of The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. His Nabucco (p. Pier Alessandro Ginori, libretto, Compagnia della Purificazione, 1726, I:Fm, Melodr. 2274.20) was performed at San Firenze on Dec. 21, 1729, and was revived there at least four times

through the year 1752 (ibid., passim). Like Veracini and Orlandini, Conti seems in general to have reserved his

oratorios for performances at which he was director, as I will show in another study. However, after his death in

1740, his works could have entered the repertoire at San Firenze, since he left the Congregation all his oratorios with orchestral rather than merely basso continuo accompaniment (I:Fas, Testamenti, Ottobre-Novem-

bre-Dicembre, 1732, under the date Nov. 23, 1732). These oratorios may have been sold with the others in 1780

(see footnote 3); they have disappeared completely, along with the rest of his church music, which he carefully divided, according to category, between the Domenican Fathers of San Marco and the nuns of San Domenico, and his secular music, which he left to Bartolomeo Felici, according to the terms of his will (loc. cit.; and footnote 106 above). One chamber cantata of Conti's is known to survive, "Vento nel core un certo ardore,"B :Lc, Fonds

Terry, ms. 74.

99 I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 175 (Filippini 77), passim, and footnote 95 above.

100 The only extensive comment on Redi to be found in secondary literature so far is MARIO FABBRI, La

giovinezza di Luigi Cherubini nella vita musicale fiorentina del suo tempo, in: Luigi Cherubini nel II centenario della nascita, Historiae musicae cultores, 24 (1962), p. 5, where Redi's birth and death dates are given and two of his oratorio titles are listed. 101 I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 136, libro 6, fols. 112r-153v. On Jan. 31, 1753, Redi's salary was raised to

fifteen scudi per year; on Oct. 3, 1755, it was raised again to eighteen scudi annually (I:Fsf, libro di decretiB, p. 90 and 110), which was still not comparable to the 150 scudi paid to Benvenuti (see footnote 76). 102 Redi was also maestro di cappella of the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, 1719-1736 (I:Fas, Comp. rel.

sop. 161, fols. 55'-127r), at Santa Maria Novella, 1761-1767 (I: Fr, Moreniana, Palagi 191, receipts from May 24, 1761 through June 18, 1767), San Pancrazio from at least 1729 to about 1766 (I:Fas, Corp. rel. sop., Convento 88, libro 18, opening 201, left), San Gaetano, in 1760 (I:Fas, Comp. rel. sop. 1984, under the dates Aug. 14 and Sept. 16, 1760), and the Cathedral, 1760-1769 (I:Fr, Moreniana, Acquisti diversi 54, Vol. 23, fol. 96r), having been

sotto-maestro there since at least 1753 (title page of the libretto to Gesu presentato nel tempio, I:Fr, Riccard.

misc. 227.40). 103 Existing records (see footnote 7) list performances at San Firenze of these oratorios by Redi:

Gioasso or Joaz (libretto, Compangia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, 1719, I:VCini, Collez. Rolandi, REO-RESI),

from Nov. 1, 1729 to Jan. 1, 1754. I fratelli di Giuseppe, Dec. 8, 1729. Giuseppe riconosciuto (same as above?), from Dec. 8, 1738 to Nov. 1, 1758.




Isacco figura del Redentore, Dec. 26, 1738 to Jan. 6, 1755. Betulia liberata, from Nov. 27, 1740 to Nov. 4, 1759. Matatia in Modin (libretti, Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, 1722, I:Fm, Melodr. 2368.24; and Oratorio

del SS. Sagramento della Citta di Colle, 1727, I:VCini, Collez. Rolandi, RED-RES), Jan. 8, 1741 and Dec. 27, 1741.

Sisara disfatto e fuggitivo, p. Giovanni Cammillo Tacchi (ms. libretto, 1746, I:Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 111 [Filippini 15], fols. 42r-51r) from March 1, 1746 to Dec. 22, 1754.

Ismaele in esiglio, p. G. C. Tacchi (ms. libretto, 1747, ibid., fols. 52r-59r), from Nov. 9, 1752 to Nov. 30, 1763. Salomone, from Nov. 2, 1751 to Dec. 18, 1763. Cantata pastorale, from Dec. 25, 1752 to Dec. 25, 1754. In addition, Redi is named as the composer in the following manuscript libretti (I :Fn, Conv. sop. da ord. 111

[Filippini 15]) found in a collection dominated by libretti by the Florentine Oratorian Father Giovanni Cammillo Tacchi and formerly part of the Congregation's library; therefore it seems that these oratorios were also performed at San Firenze:

L'ammazzone Alessandrina o sia S. Caterina del Monte Sinai, p. G. C. Tacchi (libretto dated Nov. 29, 1747, ibid., fols. 92r_-98v).

La converzione di S. Agostino (1751, ibid., fols. 163r-169v). Costanza, e fede, o sia Santa Cecilia V.e e M.e, e compagni (no date, ibid., fols. 106r-114r). One further oratorio by Redi may have been performed at San Firenze, although no record of such a

performance remains: Il ritorno di Tobia (libretto, Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, 1718, I:Fm, Melodr. 2234.18).

104 The most extensive treatment to date of Felici is FABBRI, La giovinezza di Luigi Cherubini, p. 13-15, where five of his oratorio titles are listed. This list can be expanded to eighteen by referring to the manuscript collection of libretti evidently made by Giovanni Cammillo Tacchi, a priest in the Florentine Congregazione dell'Oratorio (I:Fn, Cov. sop. da ord. 111 [Filippini 15]):

Grazia divina, "cantata," 1750 (fols. 35'-37r). Piacere, "cantata," 1750 (fols. 35r-37r). II disprezzo del mondo, o sia S.ta M.a Maddalena pentita, "cantata a 4 o sia oratorio breve," 1751 (fols.

37'-41v). L'innocenza difesa, "oratorio breve," 1752 (fols. 146r-149v). II Messia riconosciuto, et adorato da i tre Santi Re Magi nel presepio, "cantata," 1753 (fols. 170r'-171v). La providenza, "cantata a 4 voci per la cena, che fa a i Poveri, la Compagnia de' Bachettoni," 1754 (fols.

186v-189v). La notte prodigiosa, "oratorio pastorale," p. G. C. Tacchi (fols. 99'-105V-printed libretto Bologna,

Oratorio ... della Madonna di Galliera, 1759, cited by Fabbri). Il giudizio finale, "cantata," 1756 (fols. 193r-194v). L'inferno, "cantata," 1756, text ascribed to Francesco Baldovini in I:Fl, Redi 190, fols. 191r-192r (fols.

195r-196r). II figlio prodigo, "cantata, o sia oratorio breve," p. Giovanni Claudio Pasquini, 1757 (fols. 150r-153v-the date

1757 may refer to a performance at San Firenze; a printed libretto of 1753, Ospizio di Giesui, Maria, e Giuseppe [I: Fm, Melodr. 2369.40], is cited by Fabbri).

La presentazione al tempio, "cantata," 1757 (fols. 190r-192v). Printed libretti are known for the following additional oratorio-like works by Felici: Componimento musicale da cantarsi nella Chiesa delle Venerabili Madri di Santo Luca di Firenze in occasione

di prender l'Abito Religioso in detto Monastero L'Illustrissima Signora Maria Claudia Villani, p. Francesco Vanneschi, Florence, 1733 (I:Fr, Riccard. misc. 382.6).

Transito di S. Giuseppe, cantata a tre voci da cantarsi nella Chiesa... di San Pier Maggiore, p. Pier Alessandro Ginori, Florence, 1737 (GB:Lbm).

II prodigioso transito di S. Giuseppe (same as above?), componimento drammatico da cantarsi nella Chiesa della Santissima Concezione detta II Monastero Nuovo in via della Scala in occasione di prender l'abito religioso l'Illustrissima Signora Nera Micasoli, Florence, 1741 (I:Fm, Melodr. 2374.3-cited by Fabbri).

Isacco figura del Redentore, oratorio... Ospizio di Giesui, Maria, e Giuseppe, Florence, 1747 [1748] (I: Fm, Misc. 319.23-cited by Fabbri).

Il trionfo della religione, componimento per musica da cantarsi per il solenne ingresso nel Venerabil Monastero di San Martino in via della Scala dell'Illustrissima Signora Contessa Maria Elisabetta Barbalani de' Conti di Montauto, Florence, 1747 (I:Fm, Melodr. 2374.2-cited by Fabbri).

Il trionfo della vocazione religiosa contro le lusinghe del mondo, componimento da cantarsi nella Chiesa delle nobili Religiose di S. Pier Maggiore, in occasione dell'ingresso in monastero dell'Illustriss. Sig. Contessa Maria Cammilla Pierucci, p. Damiano Marchi, Florence, 1752 (I:Bsf).

The copies of libretti set by Felici collected in manuscript by G. C. Tacchi (see above) would seem to indicate that those works were performed at San Firenze; the manuscript libretti certainly found their way into the library of the Congregation. The lists of the Prefetto della Musica for the fifteen seasons 1725-1730, 1738-1742, 1751-1755, and 1758-1764, however, list performances at San Firence for only the following oratorios by Felici:

La notte prodigiosa, five Christmas performances from 1758 to 1762. La presentazione al tempio, four performances from Feb. 2, 1759 to Feb., 1762. II figlio prodigo, five performances from Feb. 11, 1759 to Jan. 15, 1764.



266 1. W. Hill: Oratory Music in Florence, II

genre."'0 The pasticcio was assembled in 1727, and therefore the aria predates the

major portion of Redi's oratorios. The aria's somewhat ponderous rhythm and

spun-out phrase construction would not have been very fashionable in 1727, but could be explained, in part, by the fact that it is for a bass voice.

Bartolomeo Felici's La notte prodigiosa (1755) is a well-composed if unexceptional setting of a dramatically static, preachy Christmas-story libretto in the pastoral tradition by Florentine Oratorian Giovanni Camillo Tacchi.o06 There is nothing in its musical style of which Hasse or even Vinci were not capable. The vocal lines are built out of regular, frequently short phrases often graced by reverse-dotted rhythm and feminine cadences. Though sequences are rare, many arias are based on elaborations of a single, persistant rhythm. Motivic contrast is rare. The bass lines are rhythmically active in most cases-either drumming on one pitch or moving about, but without developing recurring motives. The harmony tends to be diatonic, restricted in vocabulary, and lacking in much dissonance. All the arias are cast in da

capo form. In general the demands on vocal technique are very modest: there are

only a very few, brief melismas in any of the arias, animation frequently being supplied by the first violin part, which often shadows the simpler, syllabic voice line with division-style ornamentation. Affective expression is generally restrained, except at the climax when, having finally arrived at the manger, the bass-voiced

shepherd, Carmenio, sings the aria "Portento maggiore piau tenero," which, in f minor, andante maestoso, and fraught with diminished-seventh chords, effectively mixes expressions of tenderness and majesty. The first chorus in Part Two, of which the first page is missing, is exceptional for its thoroughly imitative texture, reflecting one of Felici's customary styles for setting Latin liturgical texts.

At Redi's death, the post at San Firenze could have been offered to Bartolomeo Felici's young son Alessandro (1742-1772), who, at his untimely death, could have

left the position to his student Luigi Cherubini.107 But for want of money, glamour, and who knows what else, the Fathers of the Congregation saw those youthful talents pursue their careers elsewhere, while from 1769 to his death in 1819, the maestro di cappella at San Firenze was Gasparo Sborgi (1737-1819),108 an obscure

and seemingly mediocre composer. The first part of Sborgi's La concezione di Maria Vergine is all I have found of his

oratorio production.1'9 In fairness, one should say that this may be a youthful work.

105 I :PS, B.165/2, "Oratorio [probabilmente in onore di S. Giacomo] nel quale il Sig.re Don Niccolo Gustini a

composto tutto il recitativo ed arie eccettuate quelle che vi e scritto sopra ii compositore; parole di Fr.co M.a

Aldrobrandi, 1727." Composers named are Antonio Fanfani, Giovanni Antonio Canuti, Pietro Bracciolini,

Giuseppe Bencini, Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, Giovanni Chinzer, [Giovanni Niccola] Ranieri Redi, [Francesco] Gasperini, Leonardo Leo, Giuseppe Maria Fanfani, and Giuseppe Mazzinghi. 106 See footnote 104. The score to La notte prodigiosa is in GB:Lcm, MS 191. 107 When Redi died in 1769, Alessandro Felici had returned to Florence three years earlier from his studies with Gennaro Manna in Naples. An oratorio of his had been premiered in Florence in each intervening year, 1767, 1768, and 1769 (FABBRI, La giovinezza di Luigi Cherubini, p. 17-18). Also see MARIO FABBRI, Il terzo maestro di Luigi Cherubini: Alessandro Felici, in: Musiche italiane rare e vive da Giovanni Gabrieli a Giuseppe Verdi, Accademia musicale chigiana, settimana musicale 19 (Siena 1962), p. 183-94. 108 I:Fsf, Libro di decreti B, p. 195. Sborgi's annual salary was set at twenty-two scudi-more than was paid to either Socci or Redi, but hardly a living wage. Sborgi, who was not a priest, must have had other sources of income. Only later, in 1788, did he succeed Carlo Campione as maestro di cappella of the grand-ducal court and cathedral chapels. 109 I:Fsf, Partitura musicale no. 8.




It is certainly not a competent work, uninventive and clumsy in melody, square in

rhythm, simplistic in harmony, and hopeless in phrase construction and motivic elaboration. Sborgi was the last in the line of native Florentine oratorio composers to flourish before the historical watershed of the Napoleonic invasion, before his city experienced the vast changes in religious and cultural life that it precipitated. The

dispersal of San Firenze's large collection of oratorio scores, either by voluntary sale or confiscation, makes it impossible to say whether this line of composers formed a distinctive stylistic school to any extent. Several of these composers, however, could trace their lineage through a succession of teachers and students to Marco da

Gagliano, one of the pioneers in the production of sacred dialogue performance in

early-seventeenth-century Florence.110 Their oratorios belonged to a local tradition that began with the sacred dialogues and earlier recitar cantando that were heard in Florentine oratories as early as the 1580s."' This tradition was nurtured and shaped by the collective patronage of several generations of Florentine laymen and clergy. There is no evidence that any Medici Grand Duke supported public oratorio

performance to the extent that private Florentine citizens did. The production of about twenty-two to thirty-seven oratorio performances each year at San Firenze, paid for by members of the Congregazione dell'Oratorio, began more than a decade before the reign of Cosimo III and outlasted it by eighty-five years. In several Florentine lay companies, of which I will report more in another place, sacred

dialogue performances began earlier, patronage was even more broadly shared by ordinary citizens, and artistic leadership was assumed during the slack period in which Pietro Socci was maestro di cappella at San Firenze (1694-1737). But the

Congregazione dell'Oratorio played the decisive r61e in maintaining continuity in the production and performance of oratorios in Florence from the mid-seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The oratorio in Florence, as I would judge from the content of the libretti, the

ways in which compositions were criticized, the places where they were performed, the scheduling of productions, and the free and public nature of the performances, continued to serve more as a vehicle for religious inspiration and education than as a thinly disguised form of musical entertainment, a Lenten substitute for opera, at least more so than in Rome. The dominating position of the oratorio in Florentine musical life at the time in question seems symptomatic of deeply rooted traditions of lay piety and can be interpreted as a means by which these traditions were preserved, though at times tenuously, even into the secular age of the Enlighten- ment.

110 B. Felici, Piombi, Veracini, Redi, and D. Zipoli were students of G. M. Casini, who had been a student of Francesco Nigetti, he in turn a student of Marco da Gagliano (MARIO FABBRI, Giovanni Maria Casini, p. 135-59). Bartolomeo Felici's close association with the prolific oratorio composer Lorenzo Conti is attested to by the latter's will, in which he leaves Felici a large portion of his music (see footnote 98). I have no direct information about G. B. Benvenuti's training, but it is suggestive that he was sent to collect two installments of Giovanni Battista da Gagliano's salary from the grand-ducal treasury in 1641-1642 (I:Fas, Dep. gen. 1528, opening 154), an errand, to judge from the long series of such account books that I have seen, normally entrusted to family members, servants, or students.

1' See HILL, Recitar Cantando in a Florentine Oratory, passim.



oratory music in florence, ii: at san firenze in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

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