The Archivio musicale Luca Moretti in RISM
Thursday, June 1, 2023
A new music collection in our database is the Archivio musicale Luca Moretti in Perugia, Italy. This private collection can be found under the RISM siglum I-PEmoretti (RISM Catalog | RISM Online). Luca Moretti is a violist and teaches music theory and solfeggio at the Conservatorio di Musica di Perugia. His relatively new music collection features regularly on his Facebook page.
The ca. 250 items in his collection comprise printed music editions from the 18th and 19th centuries, including numerous treatises, and some music manuscripts. Many 19th-century editions are not yet even in RISM and will be completely new additions to the database. The collection continues to grow and it will take some time until all of the material is in RISM. Until then, we can offer you a glimpse into the collection.
According to Luca Moretti himself, the project was born out of a desire to recover old, damaged editions, save them from the ruins, and avoid losing them. He sees it as his duty to care for a work of art (no matter what category it may belong to) and make it known by making it accessible to everyone. This means reviving the work, honoring the memory of its creator, and making an important contribution to knowledge. In other words, he wishes to “give the work itself a meaning.”
A few years ago, Moretti began searching for old texts, music, and other material of musical interest, concentrating on string music repertoire and didactics. Everything that could “tell about music” became an object of his study. His first acquisitions were limited by his financial means and were thus editions in poor condition, whether due to age, random events, or neglect on the part of the previous owner. Over the course of time, a book restoration workshop has become a constant partner of the archive and the restorers have succeeded in carrying out demanding restoration work. Even from an economic point of view, they have achieved extraordinary results.
Jean Baptiste Cartier, L’Art du violon, Paris, 1798, a partially burned page.
This is the story of the origin and purpose of this collection, which continues to bring great joy despite high self-financed costs.
Image (top): Jean Baptiste Cartier, L’Art du violon, Paris 1798, RISM ID no. 1001250121 (RISM Catalog | RISM Online), a page after restoration. Images courtesy of Luca Moretti.
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