Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 - 1725). Lucretia Romana: cantata for soprano and basso continuo

Alessandro Scarlatti's setting of Lucretia Romana (Hanley 377) has been dated to 16 September, 1688. The following detail is given by Edwin Hanley: “On the basis of documents in the Doria-Pamfili archives, Montalto…reports that Benedetto Pamfili is the author of the text of this cantata and that a copy was presented to Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Maria de’ Medici in the winter of 1690.” Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, author of the text, was one of the principal ecclesiastical patrons of music in late seventeenthcentury Rome, and his poetry was set on numerous occasions by Alessandro Scarlatti. A manuscript in the Vatican Library, Rome, of cantata and other texts for musical settings by Pamphili (I-Rvat Vat. lat. 10206) gives an idea of the range and involvement of the cardinal's literary interests as librettist.