Da ‘sirena’ ad ‘angeletta’: Maria Francesca Nascimbeni e la sua raccolta di Canzoni e madrigali morali e spirituali (1674)

Abstract

The very young Maria Francesca Nascimbeni composed her collection of Canzoni e madrigali morali e spirituali shortly before being confined to a convent. After that, nothing more is known of her. Curators of the musical edition were two Augustinian monks, one of whom was his teacher, Scipione Lazzarini; they took care of the choice of the poems that Maria Francesca put in music.  The poems are permeated with a strong pedagogical-didascalic value, and they had the ability to be impressed upon the minds of the nuns. They contributed to the educational work that the ecclesiastical authorities exercised over them.  Pier Matteo Petrucci, bishop of Jesi, and the Neapolitan poet Anello Sarriano are the authors of most of the poems of the collection. The use of the colorature, the expression of the affetti, the monody, typical styles of his era, coexist alongside contrapuntal pages; the sound contrasts appear as the most characteristic features of this collection.