Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

Comings and goings in Habsburg Italy 

 

[BETTI, Zaccaria]. LA PACE DI MERCURIO Cantata in Bolzano alla sovrana presenza delle sacre imperiali regie maesta di Francesco Primo e di Maria Teresa sempre augusti per le felicissime nozze delle LL. AA. RR. L’Arciduca d’Austria Pietro Leopolod e la Infant di Spagna Maria Louisa Nella Fiera di S. Bartolommeo dell’Anno MDCCLXV. In umilissimo omaggio del magistrato mercantile E della universale contrattazione. [Colophon]: In Verona, Nella Stamperia Moroni [1765].

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[Bound after]: [ANON]. ALLA SACRA IMPERIALE REGIA MAESTÁ di Giuseppe Secondo imperatore sempre augusto, e delizia del popolo tirolese. Bolzano: Presso Carlo Giuseppe Weiß Stampatore dell’Inclito Magistrato Mercantile, MDCCLXV [1765]. £750

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SOLE EDITIONS. Two works in one volume, 4to, pp. [8]; [iv], 25, [1] colophon; with engraved frontispiece by Cristoforo dall’Acqua to first work; first work with woodcut vignette on title and tailpieces, and with engraved device of the magistrato mercantile di Bolzano on 4r; clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary carta rustica covered with silver paper, completely on lower cover but with only traces remaining on upper cover; that aside, a lovely copy.

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A lovely copy of these two works marking marking a Habsburg royal wedding and a Habsburg succession in 1765.

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La Pace di Mercurio is a cantata marking the marriage of Archduke Pietro Leopoldo (later, as Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II) and the Infanta Maria Louisa of Spain. Composed for three singers, playing Minerva, Mercury, and Mars, by the Venetian poet Zaccaria Betti (1732-1788), the music was by the Neapolitan composer, at the time court composer in Parma but later director of music at the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg. Although the couple had been married by proxy in 1764, their actual wedding was celebrated in Innsbruck on August 5, 1765, but was celebrated widely across the Habsburg realm; this cantata was supposed to have been performed in Bolzano on August 24 in the presence of the Emperor Francis I and the Empress Maria Theresa, but Francis died in Innsbruck six days previously; it seems unlikely that the performance went ahead, although they had already booked a starry case of the Venetian soprano Cammilla Mattei, the Neapolitan tenor Andrea Grassi, and the Bolognese tenor Giuseppe Tibaldi.

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Bound at the start of the volume is an anonymous ode dedicated to the new emperor Joseph II, Francis I’s successor, printed for the Magistrato mercantile of Bolzano, whose device appears in a delightful engraving facing the final page of the poem. The frontispiece is by the Vicenza engraver Cristoforo dall’Acqua (1734-1787). 

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Neither work in Pinto; OCLC records three copies of the Betti outside Italy, at St Gallen, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and the BL, with the Alla Sacra at St Gallen, the BSB, and Augsburg. 

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