Sacra Corona (Venice, 1656)

This volume presents a complete edition of the anthology Sacra Corona (Venice: Magni, 1656). It contains solo motets for two and three voices with continuo by some of the foremost Venetian composers of the period (Giovanni Rovetta, Natale Monferrato, Francesco Cavalli, Massimiliano Neri, Giovanni Battista Volpe, Pietro Andrea Ziani, Biagio Marini, and Barbara Strozzi), as well as by four composers who worked in the papally controlled states on the Adriatic coast (Maurizio Cazzati, Orazio Tarditi, Stefano Filippini, and Simone Vesi). A detailed study of contemporary documents reveals possible reasons for this somewhat idiosyncratic choice of composers, finding them in the family history of the publisher, Bartolomeo Magni (descended from a dynasty of Ravennese musicians) and in contemporary political relations between Venice and the Papacy, the former being dependent on the latter for funding in its ongoing military campaign against the Turks. A pivotal figure in these relations was Giorgio Corner, bishop of Padua and a scion of a prominent Venetian family (whose private musical chapel employed two of the composers in the anthology, Simone Vesi and Biagio Marini).