'Toccate per Cimbalo del Signor Domenico Scarlatti': An Unexplored Early Source

Abstract

English Abstract The loss of musical autographs by Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) makes it difficult to date and establish a reliable chronological order for his keyboard sonatas. A previously unexplored source now sheds new light on the composer’s early period: a manuscript contained in a miscellaneous codex preserved at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris (F-Pa MS-6785 (F-Pa Ms-6785, [https:// archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc86681q]). This source includes a collection of twentyone sonatas by Scarlatti, copied by two anonymous scribes. This article examines the activity of each copyist and the paper’s watermarks. The findings indicate that the manuscript originated in France, and was based on drafts of individual sonatas stemming from an Italian context. A philological analysis confirms that this new source derives from Scarlatti’s autographs. A comparison between this manuscript and the first pieces published in Paris (Pièces choisies pour le clavecin ou l’orgue [Boivin, 1737]) reveals that it could not have been based on that edition, nor on its antigraphs. Rather, it must have arrived in France at an earlier date, derived from an Italian antigraph. This source represents the most extensive surviving collection of early sonatas circulating in manuscript from across Europe prior to the printed dissemination of Scarlatti’s keyboard works.