Description
Provenance: Part of the collection of Antonino Reggio (1725-1780), a Sicilian priest and composer. After Reggio’s death, the Münster volumes likely belonged to an intermediate collector, after which they were acquired by Fortunato Santini (1777-1861). They were in Santini’s collection by 1820 as Santini reports their presence in the catalogue of his collection which was published in Rome in 1820.
Description: Oblong volume, 220x290mm (spine height 33mm). Folio size: 205×280-285mm. Total of seventy sonatas.
Rastrum: Stave size: 9mm; distance between staves: 13mm; total stave span: 165mm.
Watermarks: Corner mark S_P (total size c28mm). Index: lily in double circle (diameter of outer circle: 50mm; inner circle: 44mm); flyleaf: lily in double circle (diameter of outer circle: 50mm; inner circle: 44mm) with letters CB.
Titles: The sonatas were originally numbered by Reggio. A later hand – presumably that of an intermediate collector – marked the sonata numbers on each page of each sonata. On top of this, Reggio marked the name ‘Scarlatti’ at various points, perhaps to indicate groupings.
Copyist: Sheveloff 1970 refers to the copyist of this volume as M2. Hart 2011 reports that Klaus Kindler discovered that this was Antonino Reggio, the owner and compiler of the Münster volumes.
Comments: Münster has long been regarded as one of the most important sources of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas. The five manuscript volumes in total contain 363 sonatas by Scarlatti (and one most likely by Alberti; see KS18). Based on extensive source analysis during this project, we now know that the compilation process of these volumes was far more complex than was assumed previously. Furthermore, the presence of over 1,500 alterations to the original text by Antonino Reggio, the first owner of the collection, has made it more difficult to assess Münster’s relationship to other extant sources such as the Parma and Venice collections. We can now confidently say that most of Münster (at least the work by M1) was copied from high-quality exemplars which appear not to have survived.
Much of Münster 4 may have been copied at an earlier date as is suggested by the ‘1754’ postscripts present in some of the sonatas. However, its cover and index pages suggest that it was bound at the same time as the first three Münster volumes, placing this activity in 1760s Rome.
Date: Based on the watermark evidence, the examination of extant work by the copyist, and biographical details of Antonino Reggio’s life, Van der Klis 2026 suggests a dating of c1763 for the compilation of this volume and a possible earlier dating (between 1754 and 1763) for the copying activity.
