Riflessioni vecchie e nuove sull’epistolario di Boccherini (o meglio: su ciò che ne resta), con la trascrizione in appendice delle lettere autografe

Of Luigi Boccherini we do not possess specific exchanges of letters, let alone a complete correspondence, but only an incomplete epistolary. In addition to the fact that almost all the letters sent to the musician by his correspondents have gone missing, some of the letters he wrote are lost, while almost all of those sent to Ignaz Pleyel (the most copious part of Boccherini’s epistolary) are now known only through the French and English translations made for the benefit of Germaine de Rothschild.

Despite these limitations, what remains to us of the Boccherini epistolary constitutes, if properly interpreted, a valuable contribution in at least three directions: it helps correct some historiographical errors; it is valuable testimony about the dynamics of musical commerce; and it enlightens us about Boccherini’s poetics.

In the Appendix, the essay offers the full transcription, in the original language, of all surviving Boccherini autographs.