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 38mm). Folio size: 205x275mm. Total of sixty sonatas (but see description below).
Rastrum: Stave size: 9mm; distance between staves: 12.5mm; total stave span: 165mm.
Watermark: Lily in circle with letters CB above. Diameter of circle: 46mm. Flyleaf: lily in circle with letter V above (diameter of circle: 46mm).
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.
Copyist: Sheveloff 1970 refers to the copyist of this volume as M1. Van der Klis 2026 identifies this copyist as a Rome-based professional active from c1740-1781. M1 worked closely with Francesco Tosti, a copyist associated with the Vatican’s Cappella Giulia and the Teatro Argentina in Rome, as well as M6, one of the other copyists in Münster 5.
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.
Münster 2 contains a hidden sonata in the sixth quire which was first discussed in C1 Compiling Scarlatti: the Münster volumes (Sounding Board 23).
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.
