Images for the music: drawings and secular cantatas

Bianco, A. (2025)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation examines the illustrated decorations in secular cantata manuscripts from 17th- and early 18th-century Italy, a previously understudied visual culture at the intersection of music, drawing, and elite sociability. These manuscripts often include small pen-and-ink drawings, vignettes, and ornate initials that have long been dismissed as anonymous embellishments.

A central outcome of this research is the attribution of a group of manuscript drawings to the celebrated architect and scenographer Filippo Juvarra, revealing a lesser-known chapter in his early graphic production in Rome. These images demonstrate his technical skill and engagement with musical culture during his formative years. The dissertation also revisits the multifaceted career of Carlo Antonio Buffagnotti, a composer and printmaker in Bologna. Another key case study is the manuscript I-Rc MS 2478, preserved at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome.

Through close visual analysis, archival research, and iconographic comparison, the study reconstructs artistic contributions that were previously anonymous or misunderstood. It demonstrates how these drawings served as tokens of prestige, friendship, or authorship, functioning as visual performances that reflected the cantata’s refined and often intimate musical world.

By restoring visibility to forgotten artists and neglected images, this research invites a broader understanding of how music, art, and identity interacted in early modern Europe. It offers a new way to read historical sources, one that values visual traces as meaningful forms of cultural memory and contributes to ongoing efforts to connect musicological and art-historical perspectives.

• Decorated music manuscripts
• Secular cantatas
• Music iconography
• Manuscript illumination
• Baroque visual culture
• Roman artistic networks
• Cultural identity
• Visual evidence in music sources
• Provenance research
• Digital cataloguing

• All authors: Bianco, A.
• Supervisor: Fabris, D.
• Co-supervisor: Koopman, T.; Scott, A.; Sman, G.J. van der
• Committee: Bussels, S.; Giovani, G.; Di Stefano, G.P.; Teeuwen, M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2025-12-03
• DOI: doi:10.60602/neb1-9898