Provenance: Former owner: Vincenzo Bovio (1809-1889).
Description: A manuscript collection containing twelve keyboard sonatas. Ten of these are by Scarlatti (a selection from the Essercizi) and two are by Antonio Gaetano Pampani (c1705-1775).
Titles: There are four title pages in this manuscript collection which reveal the organisation of the sonatas in groups by key. All title pages contain a variation of ‘Sonata / Per il Cembalo / Del Sig:re Domenico Scarlatti’ (note the singular sonata here). The four groups are:
K3, K7 (no sharps/flats)
K10, K5, K6 (one flat)
K9, K30 (one flat)
K2, K14, K15 (one sharp)
While groups 1, 2, and 4 all have clear key relationships – respectively A minor, F major/D minor, and G major/E minor – no such relationship exists for group 3 (D minor/G minor).
Copyist: The elaborate decorations on the title pages tell us that the copy was made (or sold) by the Venetian copying house of Giuseppe Baldan, whose hand survives in many extant copies featuring similar decorations.
Comments: The first two groupings of sonatas appear in the same order in Boivin 2. However, in this printed edition, these groupings are not indicated in the same manner as in Montecassino 6-E.
It appears that the musical text in Montecassino 6-E is closely related to that found in the Witvogel printed edition, although the numerous additions of dynamics must have been copied from an intermediate exemplar which has not survived (unless these were original additions by Baldan or his associates).
Date: Giuseppe Baldan appears to have been active from 1740-1790. This copy was likely made at the latter end of this range (RISM gives 1790-1799).
Full Data and Manuscripts
Study the complete collated data and manuscripts in our dedicated Google Drive spreadsheet.
