[ 280 ]
![next](graphics/next.gif)
TOC
|
the whole collected in the course of many years conversation and reading. I must add to these favours, that of procuring me some of the most curious and scarce printed books which I sought at Rome: it was owing to his friendly zeal likewise, that, after three weeks spent in vain by myself and friends there, in search of the first oratorio that was ever set to music, I at length got a sight and copy of it; and, to crown the whole, he joined to all these benefits, not only that of furnishing me with a true and genuine copy of the fa- mous Miserere of Allegri, but of all the compositions performed in the Pope's chapel during Passion Week; together with many of Palestrina, Benevoli, Luca Marenza, and others which have never been printed, nor have they ever been performed but in that chapel.
I was not more curious about the Va- tican library, than the Pope's chapel, that celebrated sanctuary in which church music seems to have had it's birth, or at
|