Description
Provenance: According to Serguei N. Prozhoguin’s detailed study of the fifteen volumes (accessible here – Italian only): Queen Maria Bárbara; Carlo Broschi alias Farinelli; possibly sold by Farinelli’s nephew Matteo Pisani from 1786 onwards, with a portion reaching the composer Vincenzo Manfredini by 1798 at the latest; subsequently acquired by the noble Venetian family Mocenigo-Contarini di San Benedetto (Contessa Polissena Contarini); after her death in 1833, part of the library passed to the Venetian scholar Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna and/or the bookseller Canciani; acquired in 1835 by the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice.
Description: Fifteen volumes of keyboard music by Domenico Scarlatti dated 1742-1757, containing in total 498 sonatas (including the two versions of K52 in Venice 1742). The collection comprises two volumes (Venice 1742 and Venice 1749) predating the main numbered series, and thirteen volumes (Venice 1-13, 1752-1757) forming the core of the collection. All volumes are bound in fine crimson leather with rich gilt decorations. Volumes 1742 and 1749 bear a royal heraldic coat of arms on the front boards (combined shields of the Borbones of Spain and the Braganzas of Portugal) and an “A” monogram with a princely crown on the spine panels, tentatively identified with the Infante Dom António de Portugal. Volumes 1-11 bear the same royal heraldic arms; Volumes 7 and 8 instead show a variant described as coeur brisé, interpreted as mourning shields following the death of Maria Bárbara, with the male Order of the Golden Fleece collar replacing the feminine floral wreath. The bindings are of Spanish origin. Several volumes (7, 8, 11, 13) show deliberate abrasions of the upper spine panels, making their original series number impossible to determine with certainty. All volumes were restored at some point in the twentieth century by the Benedettini di San Giorgio, Venice.
Watermarks: The endpapers and guards of the Venice volumes show a variety of watermarks. Volumes 1742 and 1749 contain French or French-imitation paper of the papier trois O à la façon de Gènes type, produced in the Béarn region before 1741, with SP-type watermarks combining the letters S and P with Genoese heraldic imagery. Volumes 2 and 11 contain paper with a watermark of a lily inside a crowned shield with the initials VDL (Van der Ley, a Dutch papermaking family) and the countermark IV (Jean Villedary, a French papermaker active in the Angoumois). Volume 6 contains paper likely of Genoese origin, with an accurate rendering of the Genoese coat of arms paired with a second unidentified watermark. Volume 10 contains an unidentified watermark of a hand grasping a sword. Volume 13 contains two unidentified watermarks.
Titles: Volumes 1742 and 1749 give the composer’s full name on the title page. Volumes 1-13 give only ‘Scarlatti’ on the title page, together with a volume number (‘Libro I’, ‘Libro 2.o’, etc.) and year. Individual sonatas are not titled, only numbered sequentially within each volume.
Copyists: Sheveloff 1970 proposed three different copyists for this set: one for Venice 1742, one for Venice 1749, and one for Volumes 1-13. The copyist of Volumes 1-13 is the same person as the ‘main scribe’ of Parma. Several attempts at the identification of this hand have been made over the years. No truly conclusive evidence for any of the proposed identifications (Lorenzo de Almón y Pereira, José Alaguero, or José Domingo Santis[s]o) has been provided to date.
Comments: The Venice volumes were originally catalogued by the Marciana under various systems before receiving their current shelfmarks (It. IV, 199–213 = 9770-9784). Volumes 1742 and 1749 were initially separated from the main series due to their different handwriting and physical dimensions. The spine panels of Volumes 7, 8, 11, and 13 show deliberate removal of decorations (likely using a solvent), rendering their original series classification among the three Farinelli sequences (96, 97, or 98) uncertain. Only Volumes 1-6, 9, 10, and 12 can be confidently assigned to the original series 98 on the basis of their preserved spine numbering.
The most detailed study of these volumes remains that by Serguei N. Prozhoguin which is accessible here.
Date: The volumes are dated by the copyist on the title pages: 1742, 1749, and 1752-1757 respectively.
