404 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«"i S. VIII. Nov, 12. '69. 



Thorpe, in his Catalogue for 1832, the 1610 

 edition, marked 21. 12*. 6rf. Harding and Lepard, 

 in their Catalogue for 1829, a fine copy of the 

 1632 edition, marked 51. 5s. Leslie, in his Cata- 

 logue for 1833, the edition of 1641, marked 

 41. 14s. 6d.; and J. Bohn, in his Catalogue for 

 1843, a copy of the same edition, marked 51. i5s. 6d. 



I find, from some rough notes, made some years 

 since when going through the various cathedral 

 libraries, that I have several memoranda of the 

 various editions of Foxe's Actes and Monuments 

 preserved in these repositories, which may be of 

 some use to your valued correspondent Me. J. G. 

 Nichols. It does not pretend to be a complete 

 list of all the copies preserved in our cathedral 

 libraries, but only what I made notes of at the 

 time. 



Edition of 1610. Hereford Cathedral. 



Edition of 1632. Canterbury and Gloucester 

 Cathedrals. 



Edition of 1641. Lichfield Cathedral. 



Edition of 1684. Ely, Norwich, Exeter, and 

 Rochester Cathedrals. 



Perhaps some farther information as to the 

 copies of Foxe contained in our cathedrals may 

 be obtained from Mr. Beriah Botfield's Notes oh 

 Cathedral Libraries, privately printed in 1849. 



I should add that a fine copy of the 1570 edi- 

 tion is preserved in the library of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge. Edward F. Rimbault. 



I have a good copy of the first vol., " Newly 

 recognised and inlarged by the Author, J. Foxe. 

 1576.'; 



This appears to be of the same edition as the 

 Tabley House copy, called by Mr. Fodder the 

 third. My copy, however, is complete, as far as 

 the first volume is concerned, whereas that at 

 Tabley House wants the title-page and part of 

 the index. C. Le Poer Kennedy, 



St. Albans. 



ITALIAN MUSIC IN ENGIiAUD. 



(2"« S. viii. 290.) 



The document given by Abracadabra is 

 nearly connected with the history of the intro- 

 duction of the Italian opera into England. The 

 performance of Italian operas on the English 

 stage was projected in 1667 by Thomas Killigrew, 

 and the persons to whom the official document 

 relates were amongst the intended performers. 

 Pepys, in his Diary, gives the following particu- 

 lars of Killigrew's project and of these musi- 

 cians : — 



" 12th Februarj', 1666-7. With my Lord Brouncker 

 by coach to his house, there to hear some Italian musique : 

 and here we met Tom Killigrew, Sir Robert Murray, and 

 the Italian Signor Baptista [Draghi], who hath proposed 

 a play in Italian for the opera, which T. Killigrew do in- 



tend to have np ; and here he did sing one of the acts. 

 He himself is the poet as well as the musi cian, which is 

 very much, and did sing the whole from the words with- 

 out any musique prickt, and played all along upon a 

 harpsicon most admirably, and the composition most 

 excellent." 



Pepys goes on to relate a conversation between 

 himself and Killigrew, in the course of which the 

 latter said : — 



" That he hath ever endeavoured in the late King's 

 time, and in this, to introduce good musique, but he 

 never could do it, there never having been any musique 



here better than ballads That he hath gathered 



our Italians from several Courts in Christendome, to come 

 to make a concert for the King, which he do give 200/. 

 a year a-piece to : but badly paid. . . . He do intend to 

 have some times of the year these operas to be performed 

 at the two present theatres, since he is defeated in what 

 he intended in Moorefields on purpose for it ; and he tells 

 me plainly that the City audience was as good as the 

 Court, but now they are most gone. Baptista tells me 

 that Giacomo Charissimi is still alive at Rome, who was 

 master to Vinnecotio [Vincentio], who is one of the 

 Italians the King hath here, and the chief composer of 

 them." 



« 14th February, 1666-7. To my Lord Brouncker's, 

 and there was Sir Robert Murray, a most excellent man, 

 of reason and learning, and understands the doctrine of 

 musique, and every thing else I could discourse of, very 

 finel}'. Here come' M' Hooke, Sir George Ent, Df Wren, 

 and "many others ; and by and b}-, the musique, that is to 

 say, Signior Vincentio, who is the master-composer, and 

 six more, whereof two eunuches, so tall, that Sir T. Harvy 

 said well that he believes thej' do grow large as our oxen 

 do, and one woman very well dressed and handsome 

 enough, but would not be kissed, as Killigrew, who 

 brought the company in, did acquaint us. They sent two 

 harpsicons before; and by and by, after tuning them, 

 the}'^ began ; and I confess, very good musique they made ; 

 that is, the composition exceeding good, but yet not at all 

 more pleasing to me than what I have heard in English 

 by M" Knipp, Captain Cooke, and others. Their just- 

 ness in keeping time by practice much before any that 

 we have, unless it be a good band of practised fiddlers." 



Evelyn, in his Diary, under date 24th January, 

 1666-7, acquaints us that he " heard rare Italian 

 voices, two eunuchs and one woman, in his Ma- 

 jesty's green chamber, next his cabinet." 



One at least of these performers, Signor Bar- 

 tholomeo, who was a harpsichord player, appears 

 to have continued in England for several years. 

 Evelyn mentions having heard him play in No- 

 vember, 1679 ; and, on 7th February, 16«2, re- 

 cords that his daugl^ter Mary became the Italian's 

 pupil. 



Notwithstanding Killigrew's efforts, no Italian 

 opera would seem to have been publicly per- 

 formed in this country until 1674, on 5th January, 

 in which year Evelyn writes that he " saw an Italian 

 opera in music, the first that had been in England 

 of this kind." 



With reference to Abracadabra's other in- 

 quiry, I beg to inform him that an Italian opera 

 company formerly consisted of one or two female 

 soprani, called respectively "prima e seconda 

 donna," or " first and second woman," or, where 



