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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
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