A Contribution Towards the Dating of Manuscripts of Compositions by Jakob Frančišek Zupan

Abstract

The study seeks to determine the possible time of the origin of the preserved manuscripts of compositions by Jakob Frančišek Zupan by means of the paperological method and to identify the various handwritings (their number being seven) found in them. In contradistinction to some older interpretations which posit the origin of the composer's early classicistic works into the eighties of the 18th century, our comparative examination of the paper of Zupan's autographs kept in the Franciscan monastery at Novo mesto (arias and duets) has shown that most of it has its origin in the sixties, and some in the fifties and in the seventies and also eighties of the 18th century. Apart of the (identified) paper is of domestic, Slovenian origin, while the remaining part comes from two Carinthian paper mills. Most probably Pitter's two copies of two of Zupan's compositions written in several movements, kept at the chapter house at Novo mesto, could with regard to the age of their paper, of Upper Austrian origin, have originated around the year 1780, and the cathedral copy of his Te Deum already in the year 1770.