“San Bonifazio” di Giulio Rospigliosi (1638). Un melodramma nella Roma barberiniana

The book deals with “San Bonifazio”, a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi (1600-1669, pope Clement IX from 1667) staged in 1638 with the music by Virgilio Mazzocchi at the Roman court of the cardinal-nephew Francesco Barberini.
Through archival sources, it retraces the opera’s various scenic events with particular reference to its productive and receptive context. The dramaturgy of the libretto is analyzed in the light of the theatrical, literary and, ultimately, cultural horizon of the time.
The libretto of “San Bonifazio” was never published, although between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries it enjoyed considerable circulation in manuscript form: this volume offers a critical edition of the libretto, with a summary catalog of the witnesses known to date.