Padre Martini and Giuseppe Tartini

The busts kept at Bologna Biblioteca della Musica

February was a month of archival research and Giulia Manfredini travelled first to Bologna and then to Ostiglia. Bologna Biblioteca della Musica is a true mine of treasures when researching about the Eighteenth Century and Giuseppe Tartini’s network: the outstanding librarian legacy of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini is there. Here, Giulia Manfredini made a material analysis on a manuscript precious for her research. Not only: beside the great number of epistolary collections, treatises, miscellanies that the library made digitally available, she could have a look at some other manuscripts for a comparison. Among these, the copybooks of Johann Gottlieb Naumann and of his fellow student and traveller while studying under Padre Martini. On top of it, Dott.ssa Cristina Targa and the rest of the staff benefited her with unvaluable help.

Only one hour away from Bologna, one can find Ostiglia, a small town in the province of Mantova. Here, Dott.ssa Elisa Superbi takes care of the musical library Biblioteca Musicale “Greggiati”. The fund contains a lot of printed and manuscript sources from the Nineteenth Century and a good amount of manuscript material from the Eighteenth Century. Here, among many materials connected with an organ tradition in Mantova, Giulia Manfredini consulted some theoretical manuscripts and some unknown violin music, including the work of a pupil of Pietro Nardini. She was lucky enough to try out the “Tartinianity” of the music playing it directly on her violin!!!

The generous professionality of both Dott.ssa Targa and Dott.ssa Superbi was a highlight of the trip: it helped in studying the provenance and in understanding the cultural framing of the examined material. Thank you!

Ostiglia (MN), Biblioteca Musicale ‘Greggiati’

With Dott.ssa Elisa Superbi