All’ombra di una corte. Lucia Coppa, allieva di Frescobaldi e virtuosa del marchese Filippo Niccolini

Far from the spotlight of operatic performances and the worldly chronicles of the time, the history of those virtuose di musica, who in the seventeenth century lived their lives in the service of aristocratic families, usually leaves little trace in the archival documents, which only rarely allow us to illuminate vividly their profiles or to reconstruct their careers. On the basis of unpublished documents from the private archive of the Niccolini di Camugliano family (mostly inventories and account books) and recent studies on the musical patronage of Florentine patricians in the seventeenth century, the article focuses on the life and career of the singer and harpsichordist Lucia Coppa Rivani (1625–1699). Although initially protected by Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, Lucia, the sister-in-law of the famous castrato Antonio Rivani, spent most of her life in the service of the Florentine marquis Filippo Niccolini, becoming the leading singer in his private court. The nobleman took care of the training of the young Lucia (with Girolamo Frescobaldi and Filippo Vitali) and facilitated her career, also ensuring her, through donations of goods and valuable musical instruments, a considerable social and economic status. In a broader perspective, the reconstruction of Lucia Coppa’s life allows us to observe the training and career paths of a singer in the service of an aristocratic family in seventeenth-century Florence and the decisive role that educated members of the Florentine nobility could play in this. At the same time, her biography also sheds new light on Filippo Niccolini’s musical patronage, particularly on the network of his relationships within the Roman and Florentine musical environment, on musical performances that took place in his residences, and on his musical taste in relation to the Medici’s, confirming his importance in the Florentine musical scene in the second half of the seventeenth century.