Document Highlights

October 2002

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"Apollo Enthroned" (dated 1643), a drawing by Cosimo Lotti for a scene in an unidentified theatrical event at the Spanish Court (formerly in the collection of Donald Oenslager.)

DOCUMENT CITATION:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4955, unpaginated
(Entry 13164 in the "Documentary Sources" database.)

TRANSLATION:
The King [Felipe IV de Austria] thinks well of Cosimo Lotti as does the Count of Olivares [Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel]. At the outset, they were both greatly pleased by that mask, as Lotti himself described in the little verse that he sent you. Meanwhile, in his efforts to achieve a regular salary here, Lotti has been helped by some people and hindered by others. For this reason, he is eager for a chance to show what he can do and now the King wishes to see a musical play in the manner in which it is done over there [in Florence].

Lotti is therefore organizing the sets and the special effects at the Casa del Campo on 18 August for the birthday of the Queen of Hungary [Infanta María Ana de Austria]. This should turn out well, since almost on his own and without much expense he will create a little something that might be considered pleasant enough over there [in Florence] but will stun people here, since it has never before been done and will thus appear a marvel. Then afterwards, one hopes that Lotti will be able to settle his own affairs in a satisfactory manner.

It is certainly an advantage to him that the King loves music and is so knowledgeable that he can even compose in counterpoint and play the bass viol with ease. Every evening the King and his brothers [Infantes Carlos and Fernando de Austria] set aside an hour to play violas together, all three of them, with the Master of the Chapel [Mateo Romero] and Filippo Piccinini, an Italian who is one of His Majesty’s personal musicians. This has made the King curious to hear the recitative style, which is so new in these parts that even the Master of the Chapel, who is otherwise very accomplished, knows nothing about it.

Piccinini has therefore undertaken the music. Lope de Vega, a famous poet, has written the words in Spanish and goes into raptures when he hears his verses set to music of this kind. Since Piccinini is not a great expert at this sort of musical composition, Secretary [Bernardo] Monanni has helped him by writing two scenes, which are the longest and the best, for the sake of his honor and that of his country. The whole matter is progressing well. The King can’t wait to hear the play and is already amusing himself by singing and performing the music. If this play is well-liked and a success, Lotti will be in a good position to establish himself here to his advantage.

TRANSCRIPTION:
[...] Cosimo Lotti è in buon concetto del Re [Felipe IV de Austria] et del Conte d'Olivares [Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel], ai quali piacque al principio grandemente quella maschera com'egli medesimo contò nella frottola mandata a Vostra Signoria. Nel constituirgli il salario ci è stato chi l'ha aiutato et chi l'ha disaiutato. Et però egli ha havuto caro di dar qualche saggio di se. Et il Re ha gustato di vedere una comedietta in musica all'usanza di costà. Et il Lotti mette in ordine le scene et le apparenze alla Casa del Campo per li 18 d'agosto che è il natale della Infanta Regina d'Ungheria [María Ana de Austria]. Et in questo egli si porta bene, perchè senza aiuto quasi di nessuno et con tanta poca spesa, che qua resteranno maravigliati, farà una cosetta, che costà si terrebbe per molto garbata, ma qua, per esser la prima, sarà tenuta cosa mirabile. Et con questo si spera che egli accomoderà le cose sue a sodisfazzione. Gran giovamento gli fa la congiuntura che il Re si diletta della musica et n'intende tanto che sa comporre di contrappunto et suona franco il basso del violone et ogni sera si trattengono Sua Maestà et gli Infanti suoi fratelli [Carlos, Fernando de Austria] un'hora con un concerto di viole che tutti a tre suonano et con loro il Maestro di cappella [Mateo Romero] et un italiano musico di camera della Maestà Sua che si chiama Filippo Piccinini. Questo ha messo il Re in curiosità di sentire lo stile recitativo, cosa tanto nuova in questi paesi che il medesimo Maestro di Cappella, per altro valentissimo, non ne ha cognizione. Et però il Piccinini ha preso l'assunto di far la musica. Lope de Vega poeta famoso ha fatto le parole spagnuole et quando sente cantar i suoi versi con questa sorte di musica, se ne va in dolcezza. Et perchè il Piccinino non ne sa straordinariamente il segretario [Bernardo] Monanni l'ha aiutato et fatto due scene ^che sono le più lunghe et saranno le meglio^ et donategliene, perchè faccia honore a se et alla patria, come fa. Et il negozio va bene et il Re sta con desiderio grande di sentire la commedia. Et già Sua Maestà per suo trattenimento canta et suona la musica. Et se il tutto di questa commedia piace et riesce, havrà il Lotti buona occasione di legar bene il suo accomodamento [...]

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
When we think of the Golden Age of the Spanish drama in the mid-seventeenth century, the names of such eminent literary figures as Lope de Vega Carpio, Tirso de Molina and Pedro Calderón de la Barca immediately come to mind. However, the royal theater in Madrid was in fact a profoundly international phenomenon and the contribution of Italian, especially Florentine, architects, engineers and musicians was at least as decisive as that of Spanish playwrights.

At the Spanish Court, the most characteristic spectacles were the so-called comedias de tramoyas ("transformation plays" or "machine plays".) Combining elements of ballet, masque, pageant and grand opera, their chief attractions were astonishing scenic effects that took place as if by magic before the eyes of the spectactors. By 1627, the date of this letter, the Florentines were old hands at tricks of this kind since the Medici Court had long boasted the most sophisticated theatrical technology in Europe as well as a much-envied range of other technical resources.

Though scholars are keenly aware of the importance of painters and sculptors at princely courts, they often overlook the engineers (ingegneri) who were among the most esteemed and highly paid individuals in the prince’s service. In the Medici Granducal Archive, we can trace the activity of such commanding figures as Niccolò Tribolo, Luca Martini, Davide Fortini, Bernardo Buontalenti, Giulio and Alfonso Parigi, Gostantino de’ Servi, Cosimo Lotti and Baccio del Bianco. Their skills could encompass the full range of practical civil engineering, including hydraulics, fortifications and ballistics. In addition, they often had a significant grounding in architecture, sculpture and other fine arts—everything, in fact, that was necessary to amaze and delight even the most jaded audiences in Florence, Madrid and elsewhere.

The ingegnere Cosimo Lotti, protagonist of the present letter, did not come to Spain as a theatrical designer. In 1626, the Conde Duque Olivares, chief minister of Felipe IV, ordered the Duque de Pastrana, Spanish Ambassador Extraordinary to the Papal Court, to recruit a skilled hydraulicist and fountain expert for the royal gardens in Madrid and its vicinity. The young Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici eventually gave in to heavy diplomatic pressure and lent the king Cosimo Lotti, who appeared in Madrid by mid-March 1627, after many adventures. Ruy Gómez de Silva, Duque de Pastrana, died on route and Lotti himself suffered a broken leg. Once arrived, Lotti lost no time in seizing the attention of his royal patron by presenting Felipe IV with an ingeniously contrived mechanical head of a satyr (the "mask" to which the ambassador refers in his letter.)

Though there was much work for an experienced fontanero at the various royal villas, Lotti was eager to demonstrate the full range of his skills, especially as a theatrical engineer. His first opportunity was a production of Lope de Vega Carpio’s pastoral eclogue La selva sin amor, which had been scheduled as part of the birthday celebrations for the King’s sister María Ana de Austria on 18 August 1627. As it happened, the King fell ill and the event was postponed for five months until 18 December and transferred from the outlying Casa del Campo to the Alcázar where the King was recuperating. The opening scene represented a sensational flowing river, the Manzanares in Madrid, with the current cunningly simulated by lengths of cloth in constant motion. The view was further enlivened by leaping fish and a bridge crossed by mechanical figures. Thanks to an elaborate stage machine, Venus made a stunning appearance in a carriage drawn by swans. All of these set changes were effected by mechanical means in full view of the audience.

La selva sin amor was no less innovative in its musical conception, again under heavy Florentine influence. In the late sixteenth century, developments in Florence led to a new more unified approach to music-making in general and the musical drama in particular, as pioneered by several informal Florentine academies and salons. The origins of opera are traditionally traced to meetings in the 1570s led by Count Giovanni de’ Bardi and his Camerata, then further developed in discussions in the circle of Jacopo Corsi. The human voice was allowed its full potential with words, music and dramatic action integrated into an artistic whole. In the stile recitativo, as Ambassador Averardo de’ Medici terms it, the characters told their stories, expressed their emotions and interacted with each other in continuous monody (that is to say, with a single dominant ongoing voice line) in the manner that later came to characterize modern lyric opera. Before then, theatrical spectacles often incorporated music but tended to be much more fragmented affairs, offering loosely related sequences of spoken verse, stage acting, sung choruses and dances. The first operas introducing the new monodic vocal style were presented in Florence at the very end of the sixteenth century; these were Ottavio Rinuccini’s Dafne of 1598 (music by Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi), Rinuccini’s Euridice of 1600 (music by Peri and Caccini) and Gabriello Chiabrera’s Il rapimento di Cefalo also of 1600 (music by Caccini). However striking these musical innovations may appear in retrospect, they did not foment an overnight revolution in theatrical practice; the sixteenth-century type of spoken play with intermedi long remained a favoured form of courtly entertainment, characterized by sensational scenic effects on which the spectators could feast their eyes.

In 1627, the "stile recitativo" was still an absolute novelty in Spain, apparently known only at second hand by even the most sophisticated musical cognoscenti. The Royal Chapel Master Mateo Romero (1575-1647), an outstanding musical talent in his own right, was evidently unfamiliar with this new style, since he was of Flemish birth and presumably trained in the old Northern polyphonic tradition. The Bolognese lutenist Filippo Piccinini (d.1648) was one of the King’s favourite musicians; however, he had been at the Spanish court since 1613, leaving Italy at a time when recitative and accompanied monody were still little-known innovations. So, according to Ambassador Averardo in the present letter, his own young secretary Bernardo Monanni (born c.1597) stepped into the breach, "writing two scenes [presumably the prologue and the first scene], which are the longest and the best, for the sake of his honour and that of his country". In regard to the accomplishments of amateur musicians, the dedication of King Felipe IV is perhaps even more noteworthy. Music was clearly an essential part of his own life and the life of his family and his court. Although the King was evidently delighted by the new musical style and its Italianate staging, no further operas of this kind were produced in Spain until about 1660.

Though the evolution of La Selva sin Amor is well-documented in the Medici Granducal Archive (see entries 13059, 13152, 13164, 13178, 13189 and 13195 in the Project’s "Documentary Sources" database), we can cross to another archive for a particularly vivid account of the performance itself, found among the papers of the Vatican Secretariat of State by Project Fellow Salvador Salort. This report was written by a member of the audience, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (the future Pope Innocent X) who was then Papal Nunzio in Spain.

Madrid 23 December 1627: On Saturday the 18^th of this month, the comedy with music that has long been in preparation took place here in the palace. The King was present as was all of the Royal Family except the Cardinal Infante [Ferdinando] who has been unwell for two days now though only slightly and it is hoped that he will soon recover. The Ladies of the Palace were there, as was almost all of the nobility. The verse composition is by Lope de Vega Carpio, a much esteemed exponent of the theatrical mode here in this court. The thematic invention includes Venus, who goes searching for her son [Amor] in a chariot drawn by two swans. Finding him in the sea desporting himself with marine monsters, she laments and exhorts him to go to Madrid where the women are of singular beauty. He arrives at the Manzanares River and quarrels with it, disturbing it and making it overflow its banks. Venus reappears from Heaven to calm the Manzanares, telling it that the arrival of her son will cause many more enamored nymphs to go bathe in its waters, then she retires back to the sky in her cloud. The engineer of these sets and machines is Lotti the Florentine who arrived recently in this court. He took this on in order to make himself known to His Majesty, who showed himself to be well-pleased. The intermedi were received best of all, representing among other things the sea with vessels and various marine monsters, the descent of Venus from Heaven and Amor up in the the air. All of this gave great delight, not only because it was done well but because such machines are a novelty not used in this court. [A transcription of the Italian text is given below.]

In the archival documentation, a conspicuous running theme is Cosimo Lotti’s eagerness to consolidate his position and "settle his own affairs". From the moment of his arrival in Madrid as a hydraulics expert, Lotti had been fighting an uphill battle to guarantee himself steady work at a reasonable wage. Notwithstanding its apparent opulence, money was endemically short at the Spanish Court and foreign artists and craftsmen were a favorite target for Royal administrators looking to cut costs. In transforming himself from a fontanero to a scenografo, Lotti launched a bold and ultimately successful strategy for making himself indispensable. In July 1628, Felipe IV granted him a yearly salary of 500 ducats and Lotti settled in Madrid for the rest of his life. He emerged as the presiding genius of the new court theater at the Buen Retiro Palace, which was in fact shut down after his death in 1643. It only reopened eight years later in 1651, when Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici sent another Florentine ingegnere Baccio del Bianco to take Lotti’s place.

SPECIAL THANKS to Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato and Janie Cole, Project Fellows, who researched the document and its context.

FOR FURTHER READING: Louise K. Stein. Songs of Mortals, Dialogues of the Gods: Music and Theatre in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Oxford, 1993), especially pp.191-205; S.B. Whitaker, "Florentine Opera Comes to Spain: Lope de Vega’s La Selva sin Amor" in Journal of Hispanic Philology, 9 (1984), pp.44-66 and M.G. Profeti’s edition of La Selva sin Amor, Florence 1999.

FROM THE ARCHIVIO SEGRETO VATICANO, Segreteria di Stato, Spagna, vol. 67, fol. 400. From Giovanni Battista Pamphilj in Madrid.

Madrid 23 dicembre 1627.

Si fece sabato 18 del corrente la Comedia in musica preparata da molto tempo in qua in Palazzo, dove intervenne il Re con tutte le persone reali, ecceto il sr. Cardinale Infante, che da due giorni in qua si trova con alterazione, ma pero tanto leggiera, che si spera ne restara presto libero. Vi furono le dame di Palazzo e quante tutta la nobilta. La compositione in versi e di Lope de Vega Carpio persona in stile comico molto stimato in questa Corte. L’inventione contiene una Venere, che sopra un carro tirato da due cigni va cercando il figlio e lo trova in mare, si duole, che vada vagando con mostri marini, l’essorta a venire a Madrid, dove dice che è singolar bellezza di Dame. Venuto che vi è il Rio Manzanares se ne querela come che le turbi la sua sede. Torna di nuovo Venere dal cielo e placa Manzanares con dirli che dalla venuta del suo figlio succederà che molto maggior numero de Ninfe innamorate anderanno a bagnarsi alle sue acque, e con questo si ritira Venere nella nuvola al Cielo. L’Ingenniero delle scene e macchine è stato il Lotti fiorentino che venuto a questa corte ultimamente. Pigliò tal impresa per farsi conoscere da S. M.ta la quale ha mostrato di gradirla somamente. Sono piaciuti sopra ogni altra cosa gli intermedii apparenti fra queli il mare con vascelli e diversi mostri marini, la scesa di venere dal Cielo, amore in aria, et il tutto diletto molto non solo per essere bene messo, ma per la novità di simili macchine non più usate in questa corte.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

click on image to enlarge	"Apollo Enthroned" (dated 1643), a drawing by Cosimo Lotti for a scene in an unidentified theatrical event at the Spanish Court (formerly in the collection of Donald Oenslager.)
Perseus, Pallas and Mercury, from Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Andromeda y Perseo, staged by the Florentine Baccio del Bianco, Cosimo Lotti’s successor, at the Buen Retiro theater in Madrid in 1653. (Houghton Library, Harvard University)	click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge	Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, from Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Andromeda y Perseo, staged by the Florentine Baccio del Bianco, Cosimo Lotti’s successor, at the Buen Retiro theater in Madrid in 1653. (Houghton Library, Harvard University)

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