The music section
Within the more general physiognomy of a “universal” library, an important section of music stands out in Casanatense, which collects compositions from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, variously structured due to the different acquisitions that have been grafted onto the original constituent nucleus over time.
The Casanate Collection
Cardinal Casanate’s “libraria” already contained texts of theoretical music, as well as a small nucleus of practical music consisting of madrigals and sacred songs from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Medieval Music
The medieval legacy is represented by liturgical music with missals, psalters, hymnbooks, chorales, pontificals, sacramentals, processionals and chants, written both in neumatic notation (Ms. 1741, Troparion-sequential with the Nonantolan diastematic notation, 11th century; Ms. 54, Monastic collection, 11th century; Ms. 724/1-3, Pontifical and Exultet of Benevento origin like the writing and musical notation, 10th-12th century) and in Gregorian notation, with square notes on tetragram (Mss. 4504-4511, Chorales, coming from the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Siena and created between 1472 and 1541).
Booklets
The library has a large collection of printed music librettos, approximately 1900 copies (Italian musical works from the 17th and 18th centuries, some from the 19th century and a series of French editions), often enriched by engravings of theatrical scenery.
Baini Collection
In 1844 the library received the donation by testamentary bequest of the musical collection of Giuseppe Baini, singer and then chamberlain of the Papal Chapel. This important collection consists of 197 manuscripts and 819 printed works; in addition, compositions, practical and theoretical music from the 16th to the 19th century.
Paganini Collection
The collection was purchased in 1972 from the W. Heyer library in Cologne. It consists of 90 manuscripts, mostly autographs, almost the entire corpus of the composer’s musical production.
Compagnoni Marefoschi Collection
In 1973, the largest part of the musical library of the noble Compagnoni Marefoschi family of Macerata was acquired: 795 manuscripts of practical music from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Sgambati Archive
Purchased at the auction held at Christie’s in Rome on 13 December 1994, the archive includes various sections, relating to the different types of materials: approximately 300 manuscripts by Sgambati, including compositions, drafts, complete drafts, autographs and copies, which constitute evidence of his activity as a composer and concert director; around one hundred printed editions; manuscripts and printed works by various authors, some with autographed dedications; concert programmes; the correspondence (1863 -1914) which includes approximately 2000 documents (letters, telegrams, postcards and business cards); photographs (over 300 of illustrious figures, many with autographed dedications) and various texts that were part of the library of the Roman maestro.
Respighi Archive
Also in 1994, a small group of papers relating to Ottorino and Elsa Respighi was purchased, consisting of part of the correspondence of the master and his wife.
Giazotto Collection
In 1995, 38 rare editions (22 of practical music and 16 of theoretical music) from the 17th-18th centuries, donated by the musicologist Remo Giazotto, became part of the library’s collection. Among these, a group of scores (including works by Corelli, Gluck, Mozart, Spontini, and others) of notable rarity and beauty, almost all in copperplate print, and two autograph letters by Spontini and the Frenchman Auber, deserve a mention.
Purchases of the 90s
Also worthy of note are other more recent accessions to the musical collection. In 1993, 103 rare printed scores of various types printed in Paris between 1774 and 1826 were purchased from the Panini Bookshop in Modena, and the following year, another 5 works of theoretical music were purchased from the same bookshop.
Finally, in 1997, a small collection of documents and 25 handwritten musical sketches by various minor exponents of the Italian musical world of the 19th and 20th centuries were purchased.
Read more:
G. De Ferrari, Biografia di monsignor d. Giuseppe Baini … recitata nell’Arcadia nel 1845, in G. De Ferrari, “Dissertazioni”, Roma, Tip. Delle Belle Arti, 1850
J.A. Lenoir de la Fage, Essais de diphthérographie musicale, Paris, Legouix, 1864
Biblioteca Casanatense, Mostra di autografi e manoscritti di Niccolò Paganini, Roma, 1972
Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini, a cura di M.R. Moretti, Genova, Comune di Genova, 1982
R. Amiet, Catalogue des livres liturgiques manuscrits conservés dans les archives et les bibliothèques de la ville de Rome, Spoleto, Centro studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1986
Una biblioteca musicale del Settecento: il fondo Compagnoni Marefoschi della Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma, a cura di G. Rostirolla e M. Szpadrowska, Roma, Torre d’Orfeo, 1995
A. Alberati, Musica e teatro in Emptus anno … Acquisti in antiquariato 1990-1996, Vigevano, Diakronia, 1997
S. Soldati, Giuseppe Baini e il mito di Palestrina, Palestrina, Comune di Palestrina, 1999
A. A. Cavarra, La raccolta musicale della Biblioteca Casanatense e il Fondo Giazotto, in “Tientalora. Studi per Francesco Luisi in occasione del suo 80° compleanno”, a cura di Salvatore De Salvo Fattor e Giancarlo Rostirolla, Roma, IBIMUS, 2024, tomo II, p. 639-663