Micky White. Antonio Vivaldi. A life in documents

“Studi di musica veneta. Quaderni vivaldiani”, XVII

Leo S. Olschki editore, Florence, 2013

Styling the biography of a major composer as a chronological series of original documents accompanied by ample commentaries, an idea pioneered in O. E. Deutsch’s “Documentary Biography” of Handel (1955), has the advantage of revealing with clarity and accuracy the true foundations of our biographical knowledge of him. Micky White’s new account of Antonio Vivaldi’s life, which uses not only well-known documents but also ones newly discovered by her and other scholars, is the fi rst such study of Vivaldi to adopt this method. It reveals the composer more clearly than ever in his musical, familial, religious and social settings, giving us greater insight into his personality and daily life. Th e author, who has lived in Venice for many years and devoted herself assiduously to the task of uncovering new archival information, besides checking, collating and evaluating the already known data, has produced an irreplaceable vade mecum for Vivaldians that will be an essential resource for a long time. Th e volume is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing reproductions of the original documents.