Belli - Regole del Canto Gregoriano - 1788

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RARE MUSICAL TREATISE WITH NOTES – RULES OF CHANTING GREGORIAN MODAL FIRM CANTO
THREE PARTS WITH MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Rare and interesting seventeenth-eighteenth-century work entirely devoted to the theory, practice, and composition of Gregorian chant, published in Frascati in 1788 by Lazzaro Venanzio Belli, canon of the Cathedral and cantor at the Tuscan Seminary for the Episcopate. The volume includes the main rules, and the most important for properly learning and praiseworthily practicing Ecclesiastical Gregorian Chant, and the Dissertation on the merits of Gregorian chant and the necessity that ecclesiastics have to know it. The work is structured in three parts and accompanies the theoretical exposition with numerous examples of musical notation, tables, and didactic schemes. The treatise addresses the rudiments of Gregorian chant, the nature and number of the modes, the methods of intonation and performance, the use of the organ, and finally the principles necessary to compose in firm canto. A significant source for the history of sacred music and Italian musical pedagogy on the eve of the Nineteenth Century. The work is catalogued in the academic project Trattati italiani di canto fermo (secoli XVI-XIX), which records numerous copies in important Italian libraries, including the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Marciana Library, Casanatense, Palatina, and several Conservatories.

WHY TO BUY
RARE MUSICAL TREATISE – An important seventeenth/eighteenth-century testimony on the theory and practice of Gregorian chant.
RICH MUSICAL APPARATUS – Numerous parts, notation examples, and tables dedicated to ecclesiastical chant.
TWO WORKS IN ONE VOLUME – Three title pages with woodcut marks and treatment also of the composition of firm canto.
PRESTIGIOUS DEDICATION – Work dedicated to Cardinal Duke of York, a leading figure in eighteenth-century Rome.

MARKET VALUE
Indicative value for a complete copy in good condition: €450–500.
A recent specialized antiquarian offer in music has proposed a copy of Belli 1788 at £600, a figure coherent with a commercial placement.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Two works united in one volume. Octavo about, 25.4 cm. Pages (4), 230; XVI, XXXII. Modern half-leather with titles and gilded ornaments on the spine and marbled boards. Three title pages, two related to the first work and one to the second, all adorned with a carved typographic watermark. Numerous partitions and musical examples and some tables. Foxing and natural signs of time, more evident on some leaves; overall a excellent copy, complete and with a pleasant appearance. In old books, with a multi-century history, there may be some imperfections, not always indicated in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Lazzaro Venanzio Belli
Regole le principali, e più importanti per bene apprendere, e lodevolmente pratticare il Canto Ecclesiastico Gregoriano con i Precetti di ben comporre nuovi Soggetti. Opera divisa in tre parti, proposta alli Signori Chierici del V. Seminario Vescovile di Frascati e dedicata in segno di umile ossequio a Sua Altezza Reale Eminentissima il Signor Cardinale Duca di York denominato Vescovo di detta città, da Lazaro Venanzio Belli, Canonico della Ven. Chiesa Cattedrale, e Maestro di detto Canto nel suddetto Seminario.
Unito a:
Dissertazione sopra li pregi del Canto Gregoriano e la necessità che hanno gli Ecclesiastici di saperlo, con le Regole principali, e più importanti per bene apprenderlo, lodevolmente pratticarlo, ed in esso ancora comporlo. Opera diretta alli Signori Chierici del V. Seminario Vescovile Tuscolano.
In Frascati, nella Stamperia del Seminario, 1788. La descrizione bibliografica specialistica conferma autore, luogo, anno e articolazione dell'opera.
Lazaro Venanzio Belli

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work belongs to the tradition of Italian firm canto treatises which, between the 16th and 18th centuries, sought to conserve and systematically transmit liturgical-musical practice. In 1788 Belli offers an unusually expansive treatment: definition of Gregorian chant, voice and musical signs, notes, lines, mutations, properties of chant, accidentals, eight regular tones, transportation, cantilenas, diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic genera, choral director, intonation, directions to organists, and principles of composition. The third part also includes cadences, initial notes, expressive characteristics of the tones, and materials needed for composition.
The book thus documents a particularly interesting moment: at the end of the eighteenth century Gregorian chant continued to be taught not merely as traditional repertoire, but as a complete musical discipline, endowed with theory, performance technique, and compositional rules.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Lazzaro Venanzio Belli, documented in the eighteenth century and roughly placed around 1730–1788, was an ecclesiastic and music theorist active in the Frascati milieu. On the title page he presents himself as a canon of the Cathedral Church and cantor at the Seminary. Available biographical information is relatively scarce, a circumstance that makes this publication one of the main testimonies of his didactic and musical activity. A modern biographical source records “Belli Lazzaro Venanzio (ca.1730-1788!).”

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The edition appeared in Frascati in 1788 at the Seminary’s Printing Shop and represents Belli’s fundamental known publication in the musical field. The bibliographic description records the print signature *–**⁶, A–Z⁴, 2A–2F⁴, a–d⁴.
Its institutional diffusion is significant: copies are catalogued, among others, at the Vatican Apostolic Library, National Central Library of Rome, Casanatense Library, Marciana Library, Palatina Library, and the Conservatories of Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Venice. This presence in the major Italian musical collections confirms the historical-documentary interest of the work for the study of firm canto pedagogy in the late eighteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Trattati italiani di canto fermo (secoli XVI-XIX), Université de Tours, entry “Dissertazione sopra li pregi del canto gregoriano (1788)”.
Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano / Biblioteca Nacional de España, copy M/335, bibliographic reference Anglés y Subirá, vol. II, no. 168.
M. Dellaborra, “Dalla parte del teorico”, repertoire of Italian treatises on music and liturgy, with registration of the Belli edition, Frascati 1788.