Harpsichords at the court of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna (1659–1689)

This article presents an account of the keyboard instruments owned by Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna between 1659 and 1689, arguing that as important testimonies of aristocratic material culture, they contributed to the family’s social dynamics and their construction of aristocratic identity. As some of the most active patrons of music and theatre in Rome during the second half of the seventeenth century, Lorenzo Onofrio and his wife Maria Mancini had an extraordinary collection of harpsichords and other keyboard instruments that were used by members of the family and larger household, as well as by some of the most celebrated composers, singers, and musicians of the time. A scrutiny of Colonna account books, inventories, and correspondence during the three decades under exam reveals a wide range of information on the characteristics of some of these instruments as well as precious insights on their makers and the interventions they were subjected to as part of their maintenance over the years. Some of these documents also offer a rare glimpse of the “everyday lives” of these instruments, revealing the venues in which they were played, special occasions and events, as well as the repertory for which they were used. Furthermore, I consider these instruments in the broader context of aristocratic material culture, not only within the space of the palace in their representational function, but also in the role they played within the family’s social dynamics, as they were bequeathed from generation to generation, from one family member to another, at crucial social or political moments in their lives. As new instruments were commissioned and old instruments retired to the guardaroba, as further instruments entered the collection, or left it, through new family ties, the Colonna collection constantly changed over the years, revealing shifting aesthetic tastes, cultural interests, and political agendas of members of the family.