Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
In accordance with the precepts of Aristotle and state doctrines such as Giovanni Botero’s Della ragione di stato, princes of the early modern period were presented as virtuous benefactors descending from venerable families. At the Viennese impe-rial court around 1700, particular importance was obviously attached to panegyric music theatre for image cultivation: the task of the court librettists, the poeti cesarei, was to compose libretti (componimenti per musica, serenate) on the birthdays and name days of the ruling couple, in which homage and Habsburg propaganda were in the foreground; these were often peppered with allusions to current events such as fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. Through a comparison of the two opposite poetic personalities of Silvio Stampiglia and Pietro Antonio Bernardoni, this article examines the different strategies of the librettists to portray the emperor, Leopold I and Joseph I respectively, as infallible descendants of Roman emperors qua translatio imperii. The basic message of these libretti is often hardly differ-ent from that of a panegyric; it is therefore hardly surprising that there are often personal overlaps between the professional groups of librettists and panegyrists, which are by no means always clearly distinguishable from one another. It was not uncommon for such occasional librettists and panegyrists to have no permanent position at court. A striking example of a precariously employed panegyrist is Giacomo Filippo Cyni, a prelate and panegyrist, diplomat, and spy, who sang the praises of three emperors (Leopold I, Joseph I, Charles VI) in Vienna, maintained an academy to whose discussions Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz also contributed, and who, like many of his colleagues, made his way through life in an almost ambigu-ous way with various short-term jobs.