Historical Introduction
The Source
[§1] Procuratoria de Supra, Chiesa, Busta 91, Processo 208 of the Archivio di Stato, Venice, is a large miscellaneous folder of documents regarding the ‘musicians, singers and instrumentalists’ (‘Cariche di Musici, Cantori, e Suonatori’) of the ducal chapel of St Mark’s. The documents, arranged for the most part in chronological order, span the period 1404–1720. Among the later documents is an inventory of the music books of the cappella, compiled in September 1720: this inventory, which covers three folios (fols 150r–152v), contains the earliest known description of the music archive of the ducal chapel of St Mark’s.
Marchio Angeli (ca. 1670–1722), custodian of the musicians’ books
[§2] The inventory was compiled by Marchio Angeli (ca. 1670–1722), ‘custodian of the musicians’ books’ (‘custode dei libri de’ musici’) in the ducal chapel, and is dated 25 September 1720.[1] Angeli first appears in the account books of St Mark’s on 2 May 1684, when he is paid 6 ducats as ‘custodian of the musicians’ books, for having had the [said books] carried to different places’.[2] Though it cannot be ruled out that the music books of the cappella had previously been looked after by specific personnel, only from this date is the assignment officially recognized and remunerated. The creation of the role of custodian should be considered in the context of the project of reorganization of the cappella pursued during this period by the maestro di cappella Natale Monferrato (1610–1685) and later under the direction of Giovanni Legrenzi (1626–1690).[3] On 25 July 1685, Marchio Angeli was admitted as ‘giovane di coro’.[4] His appointment as custodian of the music books was definitively approved on 6 August 1686 when, together with Legrenzi, the Procuratori de Supra completed an overall reorganization of the ducal cappella.[5] He was rewarded with an annual salary of 6 ducats (120 Venetian lire), paid at six-monthly intervals.
[§3] Angeli remained in the service of St Mark’s until his death, which occurred in Venice in late May or early June 1722. His name appears regularly in the account books of the ducal chapel until 21 May 1722, when the Procuratori de Supra register a payment of ‘3 ducats [...] to P. Angelo Vianello for having substituted P. Marchio Angeli, custodian of the books of the musicians in the aforesaid church, and [these] are for the assignment of Easter’.[6] After Angeli’s death, his duties as custodian were assumed by Angelo Vianello, a cleric, with the same annual salary.[7] Vianello held this position until his own death in 1756.[8]
[§4] By September 1720, the now elderly ‘custodian of the musicians’ books’ had dedicated over 36 years of service to the ducal cappella. Thus the inventory was probably compiled to facilitate the passage of responsability to an eventual successor: indeed, it has all the appearance of a document prepared for internal use. It was drafted on good-quality royal paper from a mill in Bergamo, similar to other documents related to the cappella.[9] It provides a practical and essential portrait of the music archive of the ducal chapel at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The content of Angeli’s inventory (1720)
[§5] Angeli’s inventory comprises 66 items (Contents 1–66). The final item was added in a different hand, probably that of Angelo Vianello, who was appointed custodian of the music in 1722. Besides a precise description of the content of the volumes then present in the archive of the ducal cappella, the inventory offers other important information. Angeli notes the precise number of volumes associated with each item, together with information on format (‘folio grande’, ‘folio ordinario’, ‘folio piccolo’) and, in certain cases, typology (in particular with reference to printed volumes). This data permits a detailed reconstruction of the music archive and, consequently, the repertory in use at St Mark’s at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
[§6] The inventory shows that the music books were stored in two cupboards, probably located in the lofts. Items 1‒28 regard volumes conserved in a cupboard ‘towards the courtyard of St Mark’s’ (‘verso la corte di S. Marco’), whereas the following 38 items were conserved in a cupboard ‘on the side of the canons’ residence’ (‘dalla parte della Canonica’). Thus the cupboard ‘towards the courtyard of St Mark’s’ contained 56 volumes in-plano (‘folio grande’), two volumes in-folio (‘folio diviso’), 16 volumes in-4° (‘piccoli’), and a further 12 volumes of unspecified format but which can reasonably be supposed to have been sets of printed partbooks in-4°. The volumes in ‘folio grande’ and ‘folio diviso’ are mostly manuscripts, though some – like the editions of masses by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Cristóbal de Morales and Francesco Soriano – are printed. On the contrary, small-format volumes largely correspond to printed partbooks. In addition to a number of liturgical books, the cupboard ‘towards the courtyard of St Mark’s’ contained the more recent repertory: a cappella masses, Magnificats and music for Holy Week, composed over a period stretching from Claudio Monteverdi to Antonio Biffi. The only apparent exceptions to this rule are a requiem mass by Giovanni Croce (regularly performed at St Mark’s and, for this reason, re-copied in a new choirbook between 1683 and 1691) and the aforementioned printed collections by Palestrina, Morales and Soriano. However, even the printed volumes were the result of relatively recent acquisitions. On 6 April 1614, the Procuratori de Supra approved the purchase of six printed editions, at the request of the maestro di cappella Claudio Monteverdi: ‘[…] with the bookseller Gardano [= Bartolomeo Magni] they have concluded a deal for the second and fifth books of 4-, 5- and 6-part masses by Palestina [= Palestrina], the first book of Francesco Soriano, the 6- and 8-part masses of Orlando Lasso, [and] 4-part [masses] of Gerolamo Lambardi. And the first [book] of 4- and 5-part [masses] by Paulo Paisoti [= Paciotti], all bound in thick cardboard with upper part in blue parchment […]’.[10] Lastly, the cupboard ‘towards the courtyard of St Mark’s’ contained some collections of concertato motets, probably printed.
[§7] Besides a number of liturgical books, the cupboard ‘on the side of the canons’ residence’ (Contents 29–66) housed at least 22 volumes in-plano (‘folio grande’) and a further four in-folio (‘folio ordinario’ or ‘folio’), containing a cappella masses, Magnificats, hymns, psalms and motets. The inventory also includes reference to several ‘small’ books (‘piccoli’) of concertato psalms and motets: in all likelihood, printed partbooks of music by composers active at St Mark’s during the seventeenth century (Giovanni Rovetta, Francesco Cavalli and Natale Monferrato). On the contrary, the choirbooks transmit earlier repertories. Some of these may be traced to the activities of composers employed in the ducal chapel: Adrian Willaert, Gioseffo Zarlino and Giovanni Croce. Significant, however, is the presence of music by early sixteenth-century Franco-Flemish composers without apparent links to St Mark’s. The inventory registers the presence of a printed edition of masses by Pierre de Manchicourt (ca. 1519–1564) (Content 35) and some manuscript collections: cases in point are the Missa super La Bataille (Content 54) by an anonymous ‘Todesco’, identifiable as the celebrated French composer Clément Janequin (1485–1558), and the Magnificat by Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin (1500?–1538), here identified for the first time (Content 36).[11] Other anonymous collections in the cupboard ‘on the side of the canons’ residence’ may have contained Renaissance music by Franco-Flemish composers. This hypothesis, however, cannot be confirmed: the music archive of St Mark’s was subject to notable dispersal even prior to the fall of the Republic in 1797.
The choirbooks and the ‘sound’ of the ducal chapel of St Mark’s
[§8] The ‘custodian of the musicians’ books’ was in charge of the music archive; his duties included the regular maintenance and correct conservation of the materials, and the transport of the volumes required for the fulfilment of the singers’ duties as prescribed by ducal ceremonial.[12] Most ceremonies took place in the ducal chapel itself.[13] On a number of occasions, the cappella participated as a whole or in part in ducal ceremonies held in other Venetian churches.
[§9] Marchio Angeli’s inventory indicates what was clearly the basic repertory of the music archive of St Mark’s at the beginning of the eigtheenth century, both in terms of quality and quantity: a cappella music (masses, Magnificats, psalms, hymns and motets without instrumental accompaniment). This repertory was copied into a series of large choirbooks (in-plano or in-folio format) and performed from the ‘pulpitum magnum cantorum’ (also called ‘bigonzo’ in local usage), an hexagonal pulpit situated in front of the iconostasis at the right-hand pillar (Figure 1 and Figure 2).[14] The pulpit, which exists to this day, was for centuries the principal location of the ducal cappella. Its use was drastically reduced only after the reform of the ceremonial soundscape enacted in autumn 1765 by the maestro di cappella Baldassare Galuppi, which ushered in the more regular presence of instruments. At this point, the normal position of the cappella was re-allocated to the organ lofts, previously used for performances of large-scale music with instruments and few-voiced concertato motets with organ. The latter repertory, too, is well represented in Angeli’s inventory.[15]
[§10] This brought about a thoroughgoing revision of the traditional a cappella repertory and the full-scale introduction of new concertato compositions, a repertory hitherto reserved for a limited number of occasions, in particular the most important feasts of the liturgical year and special, one-off celebrations. Whatever remained of the earlier repertory was re-elaborated with the addition of instrumental parts and organ accompaniment. A cappella music was now performed from the ‘pulpitum magnum’ on a limited number of occasions: Holy Week,[16] some ‘traditional’ feasts (like Giovedì Grasso) and a few minor festivities in ducal ceremonial.[17] This caused a large number of choirbooks to be discharged. In a number of cases, their contents were copied into new partbooks and scores with basso continuo, more in keeping with the new manners of performance established by the reform. A significant part of what, for two centuries and more, had been the standard repertory of the ducal chapel (still in use in September 1720 when Marchio Angeli drew up his inventory) was nevertheless irremediably lost, together with the host volumes.[18]
Notes
1 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Chiesa, busta 91, processo 208 ('Cariche e impiegati di Cappella'), fols 150r–152v. For an initial transcription of the inventory (with several erroneous readings), see Francesco Caffi, Storia della musica sacra nella già Cappella Ducale di S. Marco in Venezia (dal 1318 al 1797), ed. Elvidio Surian. Florence: Olschki, 1987 (Studi di musica veneta, 10), pp. 444–446. Caffi’s transcription is reproposed without modification in Francesco Passadore – Franco Rossi, San Marco: vitalità di una tradizione. Il fondo musicale e la cappella dal Settecento ad oggi, 4 vols. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1994–1996: vol. 1 (1996), pp. 668–670. A further transcription of the document, itself not devoid of problems, is contained in Paolo A. Rismondo, Pietro Francesco Caletti Bruni detto il Cavalli: tappe per una biografia. S.l.: s.n., 2009, pp. 447–449. The present edition is based on the transcription given in Luigi Collarile, Sacri concerti. Studi sul mottetto a Venezia nel secondo Seicento. Ph.D. diss., University of Fribourg (Switzerland), 2010; revised and expanded edition, Turnhout: Brepols, 2019 (Venetian Music Studies, 2). For a detailed study of the contents of the inventory and its historical context, see Luigi Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno. I libri corali con musica polifonica della Cappella Ducale di Venezia, in preparation.
2 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria di Supra, Chiesa, reg. 148, sub data; and Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria di Supra, Scontri Chiesa, reg. 36, sub data: ‘custode de libri de musici per haver fatto portar li medesimi in diversi luoghi’.
3 Cf. Luigi Collarile, ‘Natale Monferrato. Ritratto di un musicista veneziano del Seicento’. Rivista italiana di musicologia 42 (2007), pp. 169–234; and Luigi Collarile, ‘Monferrato, Natale’, in Dizionario Biografico degli italiani, vol. 75 (2011), pp. 543–547.
4 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria di Supra, Chiesa, reg. 148, sub data. Cf. Caffi, Storia della musica sacra, p. 443, which gives the date as 1689.
5 The structure of the ducal cappella was established in the sessions of 23 April and 1 August 1686. Cf. Passadore – Rossi, San Marco, vol. 1, pp. 74–75; Claudio Madricardo, ‘La gioia ch’adorna il diadema regale. La cappella ducale di San Marco dalla seconda metà del Seicento alla caduta della Serenissima’, in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell’età moderna (conference proceedings: Venice, 5–7 September 1994), ed. Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1998, pp. 279–297; and Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno.
6 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Scontro Chiesa, reg. 41, 21 May 1722: ‘ducati tre contadi à P. Angelo Vianello et sono per aver supplito alle veci di P. Marchiò Angeli Custode de libri de Musici nella Chiesa suddetta, e sono per assegnamento di Pasqua passata’. See also Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Scontro Chiesa, reg. 41, 11 March 1723: ‘[...] 3 ducats counted to P. Angelo Vianello, and [these] are for having looked after the books after the death of P. Marchio Angeli in the months of June, July and August of the past year [1722]’ (‘[…] ducati tre [soldi] contadi à P. Angelo Vianello, et sono p[er] aver tenuto à Custodia li libri doppo la morte di P. Marchio Angeli nelli mesi di Gi[u]gno Lug[li]o et Ag[os]to pas[sa]to’).
7 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Scontro Chiesa, reg. 41, 21 May 1722: ‘[ducati] tre contadi à P. Angelo Vianello et sono p[er] aver supplito alle veci di P. Marchiò Angeli Custode de libri de Musici nella Ch[ies]a sud[dett]a, e sono p[er] asseg[namen]to di Pasqua passata’. Neither Caffi, Storia della musica sacra, nor Passadore – Rossi, San Marco mention Vianello.
8 On 14 April 1757, the role was provisionally assigned to P. Franceso Bertolini. Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Scontro Chiesa, reg. 44, sub data: ‘For P. Francesco Bertolini provisional custodian of the books of the musicians of St Mark’s [in] cash [...] 7 ducats counted to him for [his] assignment from 28 August 1756 to 27 March’ (‘Per Prè Franc[esc]o Bertolinj Custode provisional de libri de Musici di S. M[ar]co [da] Cassa [...] [ducati] sette [soldi] - Con[tati] a lui p[er] asseg[namen]to da 28 Ag[ost]o 1756, sin 27 Marzo p[assat]o’). See Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno. Cf. Caffi, Storia della musica sacra, p. 446, which erroneously indicates the date of Bertolini’s appointment as 5 April 1857.
9 On the circulation of paper from Bergamo in the Venetian Republic during the eighteenth century, see Ivo Mattozzi, Produzione e commercio della carta nello stato veneziano settecentesco. Bologna: Università di Bologna, Istituto di Storia medioevale e moderna, 1975.
10 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Procuratoria de Supra, Chiesa, reg. 141, fols 1v–2r, 6 April 1614: ‘[…] con Gardano libraro [= Bartolomeo Magni] hanno concluso mercato del 2.° et 5.° libro delle messe del Palestina [= Palestrina] a 4, 5 et 6, del p[rim]o l[ibr]o di Franc[esc]o Soriano, delle messe a 6 et otto de Orlando Lasso, de Ger[ola]mo Lambardi a 4. Et del p[rim]o de Paulo Paisoti [= Paciotti] a 4 et 5, tutti legati in carta carton grosso et saldo con la bergamina di sopra azura […]’.
11 Cf. Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno. On the particular place of Clément Janequin's Missa super La Bataille in the ceremonial tradition of the Venetian ducal chapel, see James H. Moore, ‘Bartolomeo Bonifacio’s Rituum ecclesiasticorum ceremoniale: Continuity of Tradition in the Ceremonial of St. Mark’s, Venice’, in Musique et le rite sacré et profane (conference proceedings: Strasbourg, 29 August – 3 September 1982), 2 vols. Strasbourg: Association des Publications près les Universités de Strasbourg, 1986: vol. 2, ed. Marc Honegger and Paul Prevost, pp. 365–408; Jonathan Drennan, ‘Attributions to Giovanni Rovetta’, Early Music 33 (2005), pp. 413–421; Luigi Collarile, 'Die Missa super La Bataille im Zeremoniell und Repertoire der venezianischen Cappella Ducale’. Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 98 (2014), pp. 59–84; and Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno.
12 Caffi states that the custodians of the music books ‘took their orders directly from the maestro di cappella, [but that] I do not know whether they ever followed the example of their predecessor Angeli in making a formal inventory, catalogue or repertory of the music under their care: and, lacking [all] indication in the aforesaid records, I believe not’ (Caffi, Storia della musica sacra, pp. 446–447: ‘prendevano gli ordini dal maestro di Cappella direttamente, non mi è noto se mai abbian seguìto l’esempio del loro antecessore Angeli, col far inventario formale, o vogliam dire Catalogo o Repertorio della musica loro affidata: e negli atti suddetti non essendone punto né d’esemplare, né d’indicazione, credo di no’).
13 See Giulio Cattin, Musica e liturgia a San Marco. Testi e melodie per la liturgia delle ore dal XII al XVII secolo dal graduale tropato del Duecento ai graduali cinquecenstechi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1990–1992.
14 Cf. David Bryant, ‘The cori spezzati of St Mark’s: Myth and Reality’, Early Music History 1 (1981), pp. 165–186.
15 Collarile, Sacri concerti.
16 Eleanor Selfridge-Field, ‘Rovetta’s Music for Holy Week’, in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell’età moderna (conference proceedings: Venice, 5–7 September 1994), ed. Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1998, pp. 401–441; Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno.
17 See, in this context, the tariffa printed in spring 1766 with the duties of the musici. Cf. Thomas Bauman, ‘Musicians in the Marketplace: The Venetian Guild of Instrumentalists in the Later 18th Century’, Early Music 19 (1991), pp. 345–356; and Passadore – Rossi, San Marco, vol. 1, pp. 77–78.
18 Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno. For a new catalogue of what remains of the choirbooks with polyphonic music, see Luigi Collarile – David Bryant, The Sound of St Mark’s. A Digital Catalogue of the Choirbooks with Polyphonic Music of the Venetian Ducal Chapel. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2017. [Online] http://vmo.unive.it/choirbooks.
Selected Bibliography
Thomas Bauman, ‘Musicians in the Marketplace: The Venetian Guild of Instrumentalists in the Later 18th Century’. Early Music 19 (1991), pp. 345–356
David Bryant, ‘The cori spezzati of St Mark’s: Myth and Reality’. Early Music History 1 (1981), pp. 165–186
Francesco Caffi, Storia della musica sacra nella già Cappella Ducale di S. Marco in Venezia (dal 1318 al 1797), ed. Elvidio Surian. Florence: Olschki, 1987 (Studi di musica veneta, 10)
Cristina Cassia, Les Œvres attribuées à Hesdin, PhD, Université de Tours, 2017
Giulio Cattin, Musica e liturgia a San Marco. Testi e melodie per la liturgia delle ore dal XII al XVII secolo dal graduale tropato del Duecento ai graduali cinquecenstechi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1990–1992
Luigi Collarile, ‘Ad uso della Cappella Ducale di Venetia. Intorno a due inedite composizioni sacre di Francesco Cavalli’, in Atti del Congresso internazionale di musica sacra in occasione del centenario di fondazione del PIMS (conference proceedings: Rome, 26 May – 2 June 2011), ed. Antonio Addamiano and Francesco Luisi, 3 vols. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, pp. 639–664 (vol. 2)
Luigi Collarile, ‘Die Missa super La Bataille im Zeremoniell und Repertoire der venezianischen Cappella Ducale’. Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 98 (2014), pp. 59–84
Luigi Collarile, Il suono dell’eterno. I libri corali con musica polifonica della Cappella Ducale di Venezia. In preparation
Luigi Collarile, ‘Legrenzi sacro. Intorno a alcuni manoscritti dimenticati’. Studi musicali, in print
Luigi Collarile, ‘Monferrato, Natale’, in Dizionario Biografico degli italiani, vol. 75 (2011), pp. 543–547. Online: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/natale-monferrato_(Dizionario-Biografico)
Luigi Collarile, ‘Natale Monferrato. Ritratto di un musicista veneziano del Seicento’. Rivista italiana di musicologia 42 (2007), pp. 169–234
Luigi Collarile, ‘Partenio, Giovanni Domenico’, in Dizionario Biografico degli italiani, vol. 81 (2014). Online: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giovanni-domenico-partenio_(Dizionario-Biografico)
Luigi Collarile, Sacri concerti. Studi sul mottetto a Venezia nel secondo Seicento. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019 (Venetian Music Studies, 2). Revised and expanded edition of Ph.D. diss., University of Fribourg (Switzerland), 2010
Luigi Collarile – David Bryant, The Sound of St Mark’s. A Digital Catalogue of the Choirbooks with Polyphonic Music of the Venetian Ducal Chapel. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2017. Online: http://vmo.unive.it/choirbooks. Last update: 7 October 2019
Jonathan Drennan, ‘Attributions to Giovanni Rovetta’. Early Music 33 (2005), pp. 413–421
Jonathan Drennan, ‘Giovanni Rovetta’s Missa brevis: a Symbol of Musical Longevity’. Recercare 22 (2010), pp. 111–146
Claudio Madricardo, ‘La gioia ch’adorna il diadema regale. La cappella ducale di San Marco dalla seconda metà del Seicento alla caduta della Serenissima’, in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell’età moderna (conference proceedings: Venice, 5–7 September 1994), ed. Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1998, pp. 279–297
Ivo Mattozzi, Produzione e commercio della carta nello stato veneziano settecentesco. Bologna: Università di Bologna, Istituto di Storia medioevale e moderna, 1975
James H. Moore, ‘Bartolomeo Bonifacio’s Rituum ecclesiasticorum ceremoniale: Continuity of Tradition in the Ceremonial of St. Mark’s, Venice’, in Musique et le rite sacré et profane (conference proceedings: Strasbourg, 29 August – 3 September 1982), 2 vols. Strasbourg, Association des Publications près les Universités de Strasbourg, 1986: vol. 2, ed. Marc Honegger and Paul Prevost, pp. 365–408
James H. Moore, Vespers at St. Mark’s: Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli, 2 vols. Ann Arbor (Mich.): University Microfilms International, 1981 (Studies in Musicology, 30)
Francesco Passadore – Franco Rossi, San Marco: vitalità di una tradizione. Il fondo musicale e la cappella dal Settecento ad oggi, 4 vols. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1994–1996
Paolo A. Rismondo, Pietro Francesco Caletti Bruni detto il Cavalli: tappe per una biografia. S.l.: s.n., 2009
Eleanor Selfridge-Field, ‘Rovetta’s Music for Holy Week’, in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell’età moderna (conference proceedings: Venice, 5–7 September 1994), ed. Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1998, pp. 401–441
Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. Third, revised edition. New York: Dover, 1994
Last update: 1 May 2020