A Venetian Festa in Feuillet Notation

According to the English surgeon and traveller Samuel Sharp, Grossatesta was 'molto famoso' (very famous)2 in his own time and, according to the playwright Carlo Goldoni, 'il avoit beaucoup d'esprit, et etoit tres instruit'.3 In his Memoires Goldoni also says that Grossatesta's salon was frequented by the most highly acclaimed artists. When he himself attended it in 1733 to present the manuscript of a new drama (the Amalassunta,4 which he later burnt) he met the mezzo-soprano castrato Gaetano Majorano, known as Caffariello, and Count Prata, one of the directors of the Ducal theatre of Milan. After a brief excursus on Grossatesta's artistic life which led him to important Northern Italian cities, I will touch on his Neapolitan period and then discuss the manuscript of his Balletti. A ballerino, dancing master, choreographer and impresario of one of the major Italian theatres (the San Carlo of Naples) Grossatesta was born in Modena in or about 1700.5 The only information we have on his family concerns his brother, the abbe Antonio, 'a curious kind of political agent'6 to whom the Duke of Modena entrusted a number of diplomatic missions. Research to date has not shed light on Grossatesta's formative years. However, he does not appear to have belonged to one of the many families of dancers from which he might have acquired the first rudiments of the art of dancing. Early eighteenth century opera librettos which provide information on Grossatesta's balli are the principal source for an understanding of his artistic development. Besides the composer of the music, the author of the libretto and the scenographer, the librettos give the name of the choreographer and occasionally the

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