Musicians in the “Republic of Letters”: For a Social Network Analysis of Giambattista Martini’s Correspondence

Handwritten correspondence was a vital means of communication during the 18th Century.

Through their letters, people kept in touch with family and friends, exchanged information, sought patronage, and did business.

Musicians’ correspondence bears witness to every aspects of musical life, as well as to socio-economic issues related to music production and consumption.

The overarching-project objective is to create a representation of 18th-century European musical environment through the reconstruction and analysis of the correspondence and epistolary network that Franciscan friar Giambattista Martini (1706-1784) entertained with musicians, music lovers, scholars and editors, men and women, from across Italy and from Europe’s most important courts and musical centers.

Until now, research has been restricted only to the 6,000 letters received from some 970 correspondents collected in Martini's library.

No serious attempt has been carried out to gather the huge number of letters that he sent to his correspondents, hosted in many libraries, archives and private collections on a global scale.

Moreover, the methodologies followed have reduced epistolary content to a static dataset, not considering that it is the output of dynamic social network, requiring a philological, historical, and sociological approach within the epistemological framework provided by digital humanities.

The research will focus on an extensive archival investigation on a global scale and a detailed indexation to identify the key themes of the correspondence. Finally, specific topics of the correspondence will be categorised applying the Social Network Analysis tools.

Under the supervision of internationally renowned specialists of modern history of music and culture, the MSCA-GF will be implemented by a fellow with skills in 18th century musicians’ correspondence analysis, and provide him outstanding training in digital humanities and social network analysis to develop an excellent research profile.