{"product_id":"23505-vivaldi-antonio-autograph-signature-and-musical-manuscript-fragment","title":"Vivaldi, Antonio. (1678–1741) Autograph Signature and Musical Manuscript Fragment (\"Leon feroce che avvinto freme\")","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003eA hitherto undocumented and previously unknown autograph signature and associated musical manuscript fragment of the important \u003cspan style=\"\"\u003eItalian composer, \u003c\/span\u003evirtuoso\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e violinist and \u003c\/span\u003eimpresario\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e of \u003c\/span\u003eBaroque music whose\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in \u003c\/span\u003eorchestration\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e, violin technique and \u003c\/span\u003eprogrammatic music and \u003cspan style=\"\"\u003econsolidated the emerging \u003c\/span\u003econcerto\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e form into a widely accepted and followed idiom.  \u003c\/span\u003eAutograph signature \"Del Vivaldi\" penned to a slip of laid paper tipped at left and right edges to the upper left corner verso of a sheet of fragmentary scribal manuscript music, including 17 measures over 3 systems of 3 or 2 staves [for contralto voice, strings and bass] from the aria \"Leon feroce ch' avvinto freme.\" MS on laid paper, probably Venetian, no watermark visible. No place or date [probably Manua or Venice, \u003ci style=\"\"\u003ec.\u003c\/i\u003e1725].  The manuscript sheet trimmed vertically down along the left and horizontally along the lower edge, thus beginning in bar 5 and lacking likewise the first four measures of the second and third systems, the last of which lacks the bass line. 3.5 x 1.6 inches (9.5 x 3.4 cm); 6.75 x 5.8 inches (17.2 x 15 cm). Signed sheet with evidence of water-staining and slight fading; manuscript with scattered original ink stains, else fine. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr style=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003eThe manuscript almost certainly belongs to the type of \"supervised copies\" prepared for the composer and generally authorized by him with the inscription found here \"Del Vivaldi,\" though the present signature is on a different paper type and evidently must have been sourced from a separate preliminary sheet. For other examples of this characteristic procedure see the Ottoboni-Jennens manuscripts of the Chamber Concerto \"\u003cem style=\"\"\u003eLa pastorella\u003c\/em\u003e\", RV 95, and the Violin Concerto, RV 286, now in the Manchester Public Library \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eMS 580 Ct 51\u003c\/em\u003e. The music copyist could conceivably have been either a relative or pupil of the composer, since his hand shows several similarities with the composer's own: for example the large open eighth-note flags (similar to Autograph score of the Concerto in C major for bassoon, strings and basso continuo. National University Library of Turin, ms. Foà 32, c. 154r). For further examples of Vivaldi's own hand see \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eTNG\u003c\/em\u003e, xx, p. 37, \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eMGG\u003c\/em\u003e, xiii, column 1859, Alan Kendall, \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eVivaldi\u003c\/em\u003e, London, 1978, p. 103, and Michael Talbot, \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eVivaldi\u003c\/em\u003e, London, 1979, p. 100.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr style=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"\"\u003eThe present Vivaldi aria was previously unrecorded in this form but for a related manuscript, apparently in the same scribal hand, sold at Sotheby's in 1990 and likewise signed \"Del Vivaldi.\" Our manuscript includes no vocal text accompanying the second line, as seen there, but is otherwise more or less identical. The autograph manuscript from which these both were copied is unknown, but our manuscript fragment is likewise from an earlier and fuller version of an aria that Vivaldi subsequently shortened for his \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eFarnace\u003c\/em\u003e (Venice, 1727), for which a manuscript can be found in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin: for example, we can see here three bars at the beginning (bars 5-7), that were later cut in the only version previously known to survive. Vivaldi may have originally composed this aria, in the present form, for use in a \u003cem style=\"\"\u003epasticcio\u003c\/em\u003e called \u003cem style=\"\"\u003eOrlando furioso, \u003c\/em\u003eat Mantua in 1725: the libretto for that production contains the text found in the Sotheby's copy, and we know that the composer was at Mantua during this period. The autograph inscription on that related manuscript would accord with a commissioned contribution to a \u003cem style=\"\"\u003epasticcio\u003c\/em\u003e of this type. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"\"\u003eAutograph material by Vivaldi is of the utmost rarity. We are aware of only one two other scribal manuscripts with an autograph inscription offered for sale (Sotheby's, 1990 and 1992) in the last 100 years. Letters by Vivaldi are very rare: only about twenty are known to exist and we trace only one having appeared on the market since 1929.  We are grateful to Eleanor Selfridge-Field (\u003ci style=\"\"\u003eStudi Vivaldiani\u003c\/i\u003e) for her generous assistance with our research on this item.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"\"\u003eThe final form of the aria may be heard here: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/1CrcLif35kZl32XNYTHTPj?si=ec9ebd29babb4b40\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/1CrcLif35kZl32XNYTHTPj?si%3Dec9ebd29babb4b40\u0026amp;source=gmail\u0026amp;ust=1721313841278000\u0026amp;usg=AOvVaw369w7nNn2A4XVNckRDGS9O\" style=\"\"\u003ehttps:\/\/open.spotify.com\/\u003cwbr style=\"\"\u003etrack\/1CrcLif35kZl32XNYTHTPj?\u003cwbr style=\"\"\u003esi=ec9ebd29babb4b40\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46093848412319,"sku":"23505","price":85000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0512\/4826\/7423\/files\/Vivaldi_2C_Antonio._Autograph_MS_23505a.jpg?v=1722190791","url":"https:\/\/www.schubertiademusic.com\/products\/23505-vivaldi-antonio-autograph-signature-and-musical-manuscript-fragment","provider":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}