Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Scribal manuscript, possibly a printer’s copy for Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 [?early 19th century]
A signed scribal manuscript of Mozart’s celebrated opera, Le nozze di Figaro, perhaps used as a stichvorlage for an early edition.

Full score of the complete opera, in two volumes, notated and signed in brown ink by a single scribe, F. Salzmann (‘F. Salzmann descripsit’), on up to 16 staves per page. 398 leaves, 300 x 225mm, 14- and 16-stave paper, various papers, including one watermarked with an eagle and three moons countermark [cf. Paper Type 5 in The Beethoven Sketchbooks (1985), p.545], title (‘Le nozze di Figaro. Dramma giocoso in quattro atti messe in Musica dal Sign. W. A. Mozart’) and text in Italian throughout, additional parts for timpani and trumpets in the Act II Finale on a single leaf at the end of volume I, the recitative ‘Giunse alfin il momento’ and aria ‘Al desio di chi t'adora’ [the 1789 replacement for Susanna’s aria ‘Deh vieni’] at the end of volume two, extensive annotations and corrections in contemporary pencil, some modern pencil additions. 19^th-century half calf binding.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby’s, 8 December 2009, lot 93.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5432.

The formal presentation of our manuscript, along with the extensive corrections and occasional casting-off marks, raises the possibility that it could have been used as a preparatory stichvorlage for a printed edition of the full score. The first edition of the full score to survive in print was published in Paris in 1806-9 by Au Magasin de Musique; an earlier orchestral score said to have been published by Imbault c.1795 (see Köchel⁶, p.545) has never been traced.

The 10 May 1786 issue of the Wiener Zeitung carried an advertisement from copyists with the Torricella publishing house, offering to supply copies of the full score of Figaro. Perhaps the present manuscript is one such copy – or based on one of these copies – revised and used as stichvorlage for an unknown early edition.