[Seventeenth-Century Music] Caccini, Francesca. (1587-c.1641) & Ferdinando Saracinelli (1583-1640). La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall'Isola d'Alcina. Balletto Rappta in Musica al Ser.mo Ladislao Sigismondo Principe di Polonia e di Suezia Nella Villa Imp.le della Sereniss.ma Arcid.ssa d'Austria Gran Duch.sa di Toscana. - 1625 FIRST EDITION LIBRETTO OF THE FIRST OPERA BY A FEMALE COMPOSER. [Florence]: Pietro Cecconcelli. 1625. First Edition. 4to. (21 cm), engraved title, 45 pp, 5 folding plates by Alfonso Parigi depicting the set designs of his father Giulio Parigi, F4 blank at end, title lightly browned, spotted and with edges chipped, other ff. slightly foxed and lightly browned, unbound, stitched as issued. This first edition contains 45 pages; Cecconcelli published a 36-page second edition later the same year. Allacci 482; Berlin Kat 4113 (second edition); Cicognara 1432. Contained in a fine full goatskin box.


The comic opera in four scenes in composed with a libretto by Ferdinando Saracinelli, based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. It was first performed on 3 February, 1625 at the Villa di Poggio Imperiale in Florence. The first opera written by a woman, it was long considered to be the first Italian opera to be performed outside of Italy. Commissioned by Regent Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II de' Medici (for whom Caccini worked), the work was performed to celebrate a visit from Prince Władysław of Poland during the Carnival of 1625,and was revived in Warsaw in 1628. Only five years after the first printed opera in Italy, Ruggiero was printed under the protection of Maria Magdalena in 1625 and is the only opera by Francesca Caccini to survive. The librettist Ferdinando Saracinelli was the confidential steward of Cosimo II and Ferdinando II, Grand Dukes of Tuscany and also superintendent of court music. His other works includes the texts of madrigals, ballettos, invenzioni and other theatrical entertainment set to music by Peri and Lorenzo Allegri.


The extraordinary engraved set designs included in this volume are of special note. In particular, Parigi's final plate shows a portion of the villa that was destroyed in the 18th century.