Autumn/Winter 2022
Restoration Conversations is a digital magazine spotlighting the achievements of women in history and today. We produce two issues a year: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter
Restoration Conversations is a digital magazine spotlighting the achievements of women in history and today. We produce two issues a year: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter
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online, to a cardboard box tucked out of view in<br />
the vestry of an ancient church – and everything<br />
in between. As with all historical research, original<br />
documents may be incomplete or difficult to<br />
decipher, or so fragile that it is not possible to<br />
consult them. Important discoveries may be<br />
serendipitous or, as Stras prefers to think, given<br />
a helping hand by an “‘archive angel’ who guides<br />
you towards things that you would not otherwise<br />
find, when you least expect to find them”.<br />
Stras describes a research expedition she had<br />
planned in 1996 to the State Archives in Regio<br />
Emilia. With only a brief amount of time available<br />
to her, she called ahead to ensure the Archives<br />
would be open on the day of her visit. But, when<br />
she arrived, she was met with a sign announcing<br />
‘Archivio Chiuso’ – Archives Closed. “Some years<br />
later,” she continues, “I found myself at a loose<br />
end, and decided that I would go for a half day<br />
and look through this book that I hadn’t managed<br />
see earlier. As I read it, I noticed something about<br />
one of the pieces that was very unusual, but I<br />
knew exactly what it was because I was doing<br />
a research project at that time about musical<br />
puzzles. What I found indicated that the whole<br />
piece would have been a musical puzzle – but<br />
I wouldn’t have known that in 1996 and I would<br />
never have returned to that archive and seen<br />
that book had I not been prevented from seeing<br />
it when I first attempted to visit.”<br />
Another intervention of the ‘archive angel’<br />
came on the day in 2018 that Musica Secreta<br />
arrived in Florence to perform at the unveiling<br />
of a newly restored painting by sixteenthcentury<br />
painter Sister Plautilla Nelli, at the Last<br />
Supper Museum of Andrea del Sarto. Stras made<br />
an impromptu visit to the Biblioteca Nazionale<br />
where, in the final moments before closing time,<br />
she discovered the manuscript of the complete<br />
Lamentations for Good Friday by Antoine Brumel,<br />
one of the most celebrated composers of the<br />
Renaissance. Musica Secreta’s 2019 album From<br />
<strong>Autumn</strong> / <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2022</strong> • Restoration Conversations 63
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