![]() But the remaining manuscripts were still in Genoa, and it was only after lengthy negotiations that, in 1930, the last heirs of the Durazzo family agreed to sell them. ![]() ![]() Realising their value, the library approached a wealthy businessman, who purchased the volumes in memory of his son who had died. In 1926, the monastery needed to raise money for repair work and contacted the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin for an evaluation of the manuscripts’ worth. When one, Marcello, died, he left his part of the collection to a monastery near Alessandria, an hour east of Turin. In 1893, the volumes were divided equally between two brothers from the Durazzo family. Upon his death, they were transported to Genoa, where they remained at the family villa for a century. From him, the manuscripts passed to Count Giacomo Durazzo, who kept them in his palace on the Grand Canal. The story goes that, upon Vivaldi’s death in 1741, the manuscripts were inherited by his brother, Francesco – a barber and wig-maker in Venice – who then sold them to a Venetian senator, Count Jacopo Soranzo. But how did the manuscripts turn up here, in a city that, by all accounts, Vivaldi never even visited? With one exception, no complete Vivaldi opera has been found in any other library or collection. The works represented include nearly 300 concertos and 20 operas, 14 of which are complete. ![]() There are 27 volumes here altogether, containing 92 per cent of Vivaldi’s autograph manuscripts – 450 in total – all found at the composer’s home in Vienna when he died. As Classic FM leafs through the pages of parchment paper, allowing our finger to travel the outline of each beautifully written note, our eyes rest on an insignia – the insignia of Antonio Vivaldi. In a small room, volume upon volume of immaculately preserved manuscripts are piled up on a table. But despite such a magnificent exterior, it’s what Classic FM discovers inside that leaves a lasting impression. ![]()
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