Leseprobe_Metastasio_Briefe

Andrea Lanzola
Malabaila di Canale (1704–1773) who, with Baron Hugo II von Hagen
(1707–1791), was one of his closest friends. Both texts were published
posthumously.
1776–82: during this period Metastasio worked on revising and transcribing his
personal letters, now numbering over two thousand, which he had kept
since the early 1740s before reorganizing them into an initial compilation
in 1754, with a “final” version begun in early 1773 following the death of
his brother Leopoldo. Here he was assisted among others by his life-long
copyist Giuseppe Ercolini and the Martinez siblings, the children of the
same Nicolò who had been Metastasio’s landlord in Vienna from 1730 to
1782: Giuseppe and his sister Marianna, the “third” and last of the three,
who would entertain him with her own compositions, often based on the
poet’s lyrics. At this time the Parisian publisher Hérissant suggested a
new deluxe edition of his works in twelve volumes, which the poet did
not live to see completed. He died on April 12, 1782 at the age of 84 years,
three months and nine days. His “twin” Farinello would follow him on
September 16.
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