Digitized Opera Scores at the German Historical Institute in Rome

Roland Pfeiffer

Monday, September 7, 2015

We have received this report from Roland Pfeiffer:

Digitization of around 180 opera scores from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has recently been completed as part of one of the multi-year research projects financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and led by Dr. Roland Pfeiffer at the Department of Music History of the German Historical Institute (DHI) in Rome.

Most of the scores are manuscript copies held by the private library of the Massimo princely family (I-Rmassimo), including ca. 60 operas by Domenico Cimarosa, 23 by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (some of them unique), 21 by Giovanni Paisiello, and numerous additional copies of compositions that lesser known today but in their time enjoyed wide popularity, such as works by Valentino Fioravanti, Giuseppe Nicolini, and Niccolò Zingarelli. This collection covers nearly a half century of opera history in (central) Italy, 1770-1815. Most of the manuscripts were completed in the copyist workshops of Cencetti, Adami, and Rosati in Rome.

In addition, 36 complete opera scores (dating to around 1770) and 28 collections of arias from the Archivio Doria Pamphilj in Rome were digitized, plus ca. 125 fascicles of arias and ensembles. After digitization, tables of contents and bookmarks were added to all of the files to ease consultation. The digitized scores can be viewed at the Music History Research Library of the DHI in Rome. Around 150 detailed records for opera scores from the Massimo private library are now available in the RISM online catalog. The records contain general information about the manuscripts plus incipits of all the musical numbers, adding a total of around 8,800 music incipits to the database.

Image: The manuscripts by one of the main copyists from the Cencetti workshop can be distinguished by an unmistakable abbreviation for the violins.

Category: Library collections