Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Rome

The Emperor Leopold the first, not
only a lover and patron of music, but a
good composer himself, ordered his am-
bassador, at Rome, to entreat the Pope to
permit him to have a copy of the cele-
brated Miserere of Allegri, for the use of
the Imperial chapel at Vienna; which be-
ing granted, a copy was made by the Sig-
nor Maestro of the Pope's chapel, and
sent to the Emperor, who had then in his
service some of the first singers of the age;
but, notwithstanding the abilities of the
performers, this composition was so far
from answering the expectations of the
Emperor and his court, in the execu-
tion, that he concluded the Pope's Maestro
di Capella, in order to keep it a mystery,
had put a trick upon him, and sent him
another composition *.