Music Printing in Early Eighteenth-Century Bologna: The Case of Giuseppe Antonio Silvani and Pirro Albergati (1716-1717)

Carrie Churnside (Corresponding / Lead Author)

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    In the second half of the seventeenth century Bologna was the leading centre for Italian music printing, largely through the work of the Monti and Silvani firms. However, by the eighteenth century Italian music printing was struggling in the face of stiff competition from northern Europe. In 1716 the heir to the Silvani business, Giuseppe Antonio (1672-1726) sought financial support for the firm by entering into a partnership with the patron and composer Count Pirro Albergati (1663-1735). Documents located in the Albergati archive (housed in the archivio di stato di Bologna) detail the arrangements for the partnership and provide a new insight into the workings of a music printing firm during the period.
    The partnership issued works by Albergati himself, Angelo Bertalotti, Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani and Benedetto Marcello. Account books provide information about the size of print runs, the financial arrangements made with composers and the rate of sale, whilst correspondence with the Venetian iron-founder Bartolomeo Falconi not only demonstrates Silvani’s commitment to moveable type (as opposed to the increasingly popular engraving method) but also suggests regional variations in the use of void notation. Whilst the Silvani/Albergati partnership was brief, lasting only a year and ending in acrimony, an examination of these documents increases our knowledge of music printing in Bologna in the early eighteenth century.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)105-134
    Number of pages29
    JournalFonti Musicali Italiane
    Volume17
    Publication statusPublished (VoR) - 2012

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