Collection K/PP104 - VENTO, Mattia (1735-1776)

The manuscript presumably relates to Port Royal des Champs near Versailles (from 1626 Port Royal de Paris), a French Cistercian abbey which under its abbess from 1602, Angelique Arnauld (d 1661), was a centre of Jansenist reform. The source from which this copy has presumably been translated, and its author and exact date, are not known.

Born, 1896; educated at Malvern College; called to the Bar, Gray's Inn, 1923; joined Lincoln's Inn, 1931; Bencher, Gray's Inn, 1942; knighted, 1943; OBE, 1943; Chief Justice, High Court, Bombay, 1943-1947; President, Commission of Inquiry, Bombay Explosions, 1944; Queen's Counsel, 1948; Vice-Chancellor, County Palatine of Lancaster, 1948-1963; Treasurer, Gray's Inn, 1956; Chairman of Departmental Committee on Hallmarking, 1956-1958; died, 1978.

Mattia Vento was born in Naples, 1735; studied at the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, Naples; first operatic successes in Italy; Le deluse accortezze (1756) and La finta semplice (1759) produced at Rome; L'egiziana in Venice and Milan, 1763; went to England, 1763; active there as a composer and harpsichord teacher until his death; for the London opera, first produced the pasticcio Leucippo e Zenocrita , repeated in a command performance for the wedding of Princess Augusta (sister of George III), 1764; in succeeding seasons produced Demofoonte , 1765; Sofonisba , 1766; La conquista del Messico , 1767; also contributions to pasticcios; his aria Caro amor was successfully inserted in London performances of Piccinni's La buona figliuola , 1766; after a lapse of some years, produced Artaserse for the Harmonical Meeting, Soho Square, 1771; listed as a director at the King's Theatre, producing comic and serious operas ( Il bacio , La vestale and further pasticcios), 1775-1776; also served as conductor at public concerts including those at the Pantheon; listed among the major composers in London by a visitor from Germany, 1776; criticisms included simplicity and a lack of novelty, but individual songs from the operas and the published sets were widely performed and reprinted in anthologies; other work included 11 collections of keyboard sonatas, most with subordinate violin accompaniments, criticised for their sameness, but which were retained in publishers' catalogues for half a century; the 65 sonatas date from 1764-1776; Vento brought to London from Naples the latest operatic style but changes in the sonatas suggest that he also responded to the contemporary pre-Classical synthesis of German, Italian and English elements; died in London, 1776. His oeuvre included the following instrumental works: 6 Sonatas (London, 1764); 6 Sonatas (London, c1764); 6 Sonatas (London, 1765); A Third (-Tenth) Book (Sett) of 6 Sonatas (London, 1766-76); 6 Overtures in 8 Parts (London, c1774); A Last Sett of 5 Sonatas (London, 1777).