1 The manuscript copy of the full score (Naples, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica ‘S. Pietro a Majella’, Fondo Verdi 245 [olim O^A-8-28]) is catalogued in OPAC SBN (the Online Public Access Catalogue of the Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale; http://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/avanzata.jsp); the scenario at www.archiviostoricolafenice.org/ArcFenice/ImageView.ashx?multimediaType=Archive&id=37337. These sources are also catalogued in Linda B. Fairtile, ‘The Verdi Archive at New York University: a List of Verdi's Music’, Verdi Newsletter, 7 (1979), 6 (for the scenario) and Verdi Newsletter, 17–18 (1989–90), 17 (for the MS score/D8/I-Nc.2).

2 The contract, dated 28 May 1843, is published in Conati, Marcello, La bottega della musica: Verdi e La Fenice (Milan, 1983), 51–2Google Scholar.

3 Verdi claims to have contacted all three librettists, but only the letter to Bancalari appears to have survived. See Conati, La bottega, 54.

4 Verdi to Count Nani Mocenigo, 6 June 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 52–3.

5 Piave's letter does not appear to survive, but Verdi's response, dated 16 June 1843, does. See Conati, La bottega, 56. Regarding the authorship of Cromwell, see Jean Berton, ‘Waverley pastiché! étude de Allan Cameron de J. Pagnon & A. Callet’, Études écossaises, 6 (1999–2000), 159–71. Brenna recommended Piave in his letter of 9 June 1843 to Mocenigo. See Conati, La bottega, 54.

6 Verdi to Mocenigo, 29 June 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 57.

7 Verdi to Brenna, Milan, 4 July 1843. Brenna complained that Verdi would not reveal the name of the poet, presumably our ‘poet of some distinction’. See Brenna to Cristoforo Pigazzi, the senior director and treasurer of the Teatro La Fenice, 1 July 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 58; and the introduction to Giuseppe Verdi, Ernani, edited by Gallico, Claudio, in The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, I/5 (Chicago, 1985), xi (note 4)Google Scholar.

8 Verdi to Mocenigo, Milan, 9 July 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 59.

9 Mocenigo to Verdi, Venice, 26 July 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 62–3.

10 Verdi to Mocenigo, Senigallia, 26 July 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 61.

11 Mocenigo to Verdi, 2 September 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 72.

12 Verdi to Mocenigo, Milan, 5 September 1843, in Conati, La bottega, 74.

13 Scholars suggesting Maffei's authorship include Marri Tonelli, Marta, Andrea Maffei e il giovane Verdi (Riva del Garda, 1999), 76Google Scholar; Conati, Marcello, ‘“Bel dramma, bellissimo, arcibellissimo!…”’, in I due Foscari, ed. Di Gregorio Casati, Marisa (Parma, 2009), 118Google Scholar (‘ipotesi più sostenibile’); and Foletto, Angelo, ‘“Poeta assai distinto”; librettista dilettante?’, in L'ottocento di Andrea Maffei, ed. Cinelli, Barbara, Marri Tonelli, Marta and Mazzocca, Fernando (Riva del Garda, 1987), 95Google Scholar. The exception is Budden, Julian, who believes the author to be Felice Romani; see The Operas of Verdi, rev. edn, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1992), I, 140Google Scholar.

14 Marri Tonelli, Marta, ‘Andrea Maffei’, in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, ed. Romanelli, Raffaele (online version at www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/maffei_(Dizionario-Biografico), accessed 16 April 2012)Google Scholar. The first translation of The Two Foscari appears in Tragedie di Lord Byron; tradotte in prosa italiana da Carlo Rusconi, 3 vols. (Padua, 1841). For a history of translating Byron into Italian, see Iamartino, Giovanni, ‘Translation, Biography, Opera, Film and Literary Criticism: Byron and Italy after 1870’, in The Reception of Byron in Europe, ed. Cardwell, Richard, 2 vols. (London, 2004), II, 98–128, esp. 100–2Google Scholar.

15 Cain (Milan, 1852); see Cardwell, Richard A. and Barnaby, Paul, ‘Timeline: European Reception of Byron’, in The Reception of Byron in Europe, I, xxi–lvGoogle Scholar.

16 Marri Tonelli, Andrea Maffei, 76.

17 Tonelli, 76.

18 ‘Lascia per la carità quel ladro mestiere agli affamati schinca penne di teatro, e persuaditi che l'esigenza dei maestri e dei cantanti è la morte d'un ragionevole melodramma … Tu chiedi il mio perdono ed io te lo concedo con plenaria indulgenza ma sotto la inviolabile condizione di non ricadere mai più in quel brutto peccato. Amen.’ Letter to Jacopo Cabianca, 4 April 1839, in Ventura, Emilio, Jacopo Cabianca: I suoi amici il suo tempo (Treviso, 1907), 262–3Google Scholar. The translation is adapted from Marvin, Roberta Montemorra, ‘Andrea Maffei's “Ugly Sin”: the Libretto for Verdi's I masnadieri’, in Historical Musicology: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, ed. Crist, Stephen A. and Marvin, Roberta Montemorra (Rochester, NY, 2004), 283Google Scholar.

19 I am grateful to Linda Fairtile, who sent me a copy of the scenario held at the American Institute for Verdi Studies; this copy has turned out to be identical to the one held in Venice.

20 Daru, P., Storia della Repubblica di Venezia … traduzione dal Francese con note ed osservazioni, 11 vols. (Capolago, 1832–3), III, 303Google Scholar.

21 Carlo Marenco, La famiglia Foscari, Tragedia di Carlo Marenco da Ceva, Biblioteca teatrale economica, ossia raccolta delle migliori tragedie, commedie e drammi, tanto originali quanto tradotti, I/28 (Turin, 1835), available in searchable PDF at www.archive.org/details/lafamigliafoscar00mare; Battaglia, Giacinto, La famiglia Foscari: Dramma storico in cinque atti (Milan, 1844)Google Scholar; and Vollo, Giuseppe, La famiglia Foscari: Dramma (Venice, 1844)Google Scholar.

22 An operatic adaptation naturally required adjustments beyond the inevitable cuts: some material was given to other characters (for instance, the song performed backstage by ‘La voce’ and heard as regular interruptions of the conversation between Marina and Alvisena (Act III scene 1 of the play) is sung – with different words – by Jacopo as he arrives in Venice (Act I scene 5 of the scenario)), whereas other material is simply transposed (Loredano's monologue at the beginning of Act II of the play appears early in Act I of the scenario, functioning as his cavatina).

23 The principal studies on Marenco are: Marchis Magliano, Eufemia, Carlo Marenco (1800–1846) (Mondovì, 2006)Google Scholar; Orlandi, Eutilia, Il teatro di Carlo Marenco (Florence, 1900)Google Scholar; Carrannante, Antonio, ‘Carlo Marenco’, in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (online version at www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/carlo-marenco_(Dizionario-Biografico), accessed 16 April 2012)Google Scholar; and Simhart, Max, Lord Byrons Einfluss auf die italienische Literatur, Münchner Beiträge zur romanischen und englischen Philologie 45 (Leipzig, 1909), 68–71Google Scholar.

24 Marchis Magliano, Carlo Marenco, 31 and 54.

25 Part II scene 2 of the scenario; p. 37 of the play (introduction).

26 In the scenario proper, the author wrote ‘Introduzione’, not ‘Coro’.

27 At the beginning of Act II Part 2, for instance, the duet for two basses (presumably Loredano and the Doge) leaves Donato, Barbarigo, the six counsellors of the Doge, and the three heads of the Forty on stage without any apparent purpose.

28 Scenes 8 and 9 of Act I, for instance, could easily be combined into one scene.

29 Ferroni, Giulio, Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. III, Dall'Ottocento al Novecento (Milan, 1991), 290 and 375–6Google Scholar.

30 Brignoli, Marziano, Massimo D'Azeglio: Una biografia politica (Milan, 1988), 66–7, 71Google Scholar.

31 Verdi to Cammarano, 23 November 1848, Carteggio Verdi-Cammarano, 1843–1852, ed. Mossa, Carlo Matteo (Parma, 2001), 84Google Scholar. In March of 1860, Verdi asked D'Azeglio, then governor of Milan, to help out Piave, who had just fled from Venice. See Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, Verdi: a Biography (Oxford, 1993), 418Google Scholar.

32 Maffei was at the time known primarily for his translations of Thomas Moore and Friedrich Schiller.

33 See D'Azeglio, Massimo, Epistolario (1819–1866), ed. Virlogeux, Georges, 7 vols. (Turin, 1989), II, 172Google Scholar.

34 For D'Azeglio's political views and membership in the Maffei salon, see Kimbell, David R. B., Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism (Cambridge, 1981), 6–7 and 21Google Scholar; Phillips-Matz, Verdi, 133; and Marri Tonelli, Andrea Maffei, 54. The term ‘member’ is used loosely, both here and below, due to the informal nature of nineteenth-century salon culture.

35 On 5 July, D'Azeglio wrote from Turin to his wife, updating her on the trip there from Milan; on 12 July, he was still in Turin. See D'Azeglio, Epistolario, 168–72.

36 Verdi to Raffaello Barbiera, 25 June 1872, in Barbiera, Raffaello, Salotto della Contessa Maffei, 7th edn (Milan, 1903), 358–9Google Scholar.

37 Biographical information on Carcano is scarce. The information here is based on Prina, Benedetto, Giulio Carcano (Florence, 1884), 11Google Scholar; and the entry on Carcano by Renzo Negri in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. For references to the pressures of censorship, see Carcano's letters of 6 August 1842 (to Cesare Correnti) and of 11 December 1844 (to Pietro Balzari); in the former, Carcano refers to the ‘rigorosa e fratesca … censura’ (rigorous and monkish … censorship), in the latter to the ‘ugne della censura’ (claws of censorship). See Opere complete di Giulio Carcano pubblicate per cura della famiglia dell'autore, vol. X, Epistolario (II edizione) coll'aggiunta di lettere inedite (Milan, 1896), 63 and 69.

38 Carcano's nobility is confirmed by Prina, Giulio Carcano, 4. For Maffei's original view on the job of a librettist, see note 18, above. I am grateful to Anselm Gerhard for having drawn my attention to the implications of Carcano's nobility.

39 Negri, ‘Carcano’.

40 Letter of 12 March 1858 to Cesare Correnti, in Carcano, Epistolario, 239. The scribe of the scenario cannot be securely identified, but the handwriting might just be Carcano's. A sample of Carcano's handwriting (albeit dating from ten years later) appears in Marri Tonelli, Andrea Maffei, 54.

41 Verdi to Carcano, 17 June 1850, in Carcano, Epistolario, 488.

42 La Claudia (1853).

43 The paintings in question are L'ultimo abboccamento di Jacopo Foscari con la propria famiglia prima di partire per l'esilio cui era stato condannato, commissioned in 1838 by the Austrian emperor Ferdinand I, exhibited in 1840 at the Brera in Milan, and then sent to Vienna; and Il Doge Francesco Foscari destituito con decreto del Senato Veneto; o sia l'ultimo tratto della vendetta dell'inquisitore Loredano contro quel principe della Veneta Repubblica, commissioned in 1842 by the Marchese Filippo Ala Ponzoni, completed in 1844, and preserved at the Brera in Milan. Marri Tonelli, Andrea Maffei, 78 and 80–2; and Mazzocca, ‘Pittura di storia e melodramma’, 79–80 (the reproduction appears on pp. 88–9). See also Hayez, ed. Guzzoli, Maria Cristina and Mazzocca, Fernando (Milan, 1983), 187–92Google Scholar.

44 Marri Tonelli, Andrea Maffei, 80–2.

45 Verdi to Piave (postmarked 18 April 1844). The original letter is preserved at the Beinecke Library's Frederick R. Koch Collection (call number Gen Mss 601), in box 58, folder 1311; a photocopy is available at the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani in Parma.

46 Phillips-Matz, Verdi, 393; I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi, ed. Cesari, Gaetano and Luzio, Alessandro (Milan, 1913; rpt., Bologna, 1987), 482–3Google Scholar.

47 See note 1.

48 Macbeth: Melodramma in Four Acts, Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei, ed. Lawton, David, in The Works of Giuseppe Verdi I/10 (Chicago, 2005), 14–16 of the Critical CommentaryGoogle Scholar. Some of Verdi's markings correct errors committed by the scribes, others supersede the autograph score; the only correction of actual notes is a correction of an error committed by the scribe.

49 The Naples Conservatory holds two additional complete manuscript copies of I due Foscari: Fondo Verdi 244 (olim O^A-8-27) and Fondo Verdi 245, 32.5.27–28. In the critical edition, these will be abbreviated as I-Nc¹ and I-Nc³, respectively.

50 For a full description of the compositional process, see Gossett, Philip, ‘Der kompositorische Prozess: Verdis Opernskizzen’, in Giuseppe Verdi und seine Zeit, ed. Engelhardt, Markus, Grosse Komponisten und ihre Zeit (Laaber, 2001), 169–90Google Scholar; and idem, Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera (Chicago, 2006), especially Part I: Knowing the Score.

51 Later in his career, when Verdi was more likely to supervise the publication of his music, it is generally accepted that the autograph score may not provide the ultimate authority. See Hepokoski, James A., ‘Overriding the Autograph Score: the Problem of Textual Authority in Verdi's Falstaff’, Studi verdiani, 8 (1992), 13–51Google Scholar; and Gossett, Divas and Scholars, 102.

52 Kimbell, David, Italian Opera (Cambridge, 1991), 401–2, 415Google Scholar.

53 Migliorini, Bruno, Storia della lingua italiana, 6th edn (Florence, 1983), 601Google Scholar; translation adapted from Kimbell, Italian Opera, 416. ‘Poesia … è favella degli iddii, e tanto miglior è, quanto più dai parlari del profano vulgo si sprolunga. E prima alle parole, tu non dirai … affligge, cava, innalza, è lecito, spada, patria, la morte, la poesia; ma … ange, elice, estolle, lice, brando, terra natia, fato, musa; … Ai nomi proprj sostituisci una bella circonlocuzione; non dirai amore ma il bendato arciero; non il vino ma liquor di Bacco; non il leone, l'aquila, ma la regina de' volanti, il biondo imperator della foresta …’ The Dizionario Garzanti della lingua italiana, 7th edn (Milan, 1969) agrees with Cantù on the characterisation of these words, marking them as either ‘antico’ (for old words), ‘poetico’ (for poetic meaning), ‘letterario’ (for literary use) or ‘per estens[ione]’ (in a wider sense): adducere (ant.; poet.); angere (poet.); elicere (poet.); estollere (lett.); licere (poet.); brando (lett.); musa (per estens.); fato (per estens.). One of the most widely used dictionaries of the time, Millhouse, John's Nuovo dizionario inglese-italiano ed italiano-inglese, 2 vols. (Milan, 1853)Google Scholar, is less reliable in characterising these words because it either does not list the words as poetic, does not provide the poetic meaning or does not list the word at all (‘angere’ is the only word listed as ‘poetic’). See also Weiss, Piero, ‘“Sacred Bronzes”: Paralipomena to an Essay by Dallapiccola’, 19th-Century Music, 9/1 (1985), 42 and 44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Black, John, The Italian Romantic Libretto: a Study of Salvadore Cammarano (Edinburgh, 1984), 246–9Google Scholar; and Fabrizi, Angelo, ‘Riflessi del linguaggio tragico alfieriano nei libretti d'opera ottocenteschi’, Studi e problemi di critica testuale, 12 (1976), 137Google Scholar.

55 See Giger, Andreas, ‘Verismo: Origin, Corruption, and Redemption of an Operatic Term’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 60/2 (2007), 271–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 The 1969 Garzanti (p. 1697) lists the sense of ‘spegnere’ here (i.e., ‘uccidere’) not as ‘literary’ but as ‘figurative’; the dictionary does, however, refer to the word's use in Leopardi's All'Italia. The online Garzanti (http://garzantilinguistica.it; accessed 31 July 2011) also lists this meaning of the word as ‘literary’. For some reason, Ricordi adopted the new reading only for the first statement, leading Julian Budden (The Operas of Verdi, I, 196) to conclude that ‘at the repeat … the words are slightly varied, “Più non vive” becoming “egli è spento”’. Surely this ‘variation’ is an oversight, and Verdi's change was meant to apply to both statements of the cabaletta.

57 I am grateful to Francesco Izzo for bringing this connection to my attention. See also Phillips-Matz, Verdi, 116, 125 and 195. Not only the text of Lucrezia's cabaletta, but also its rhythms and gestures are similar to Donizetti's setting of Antonina's verse (Act III, final scene). The same kind of reminiscence led Verdi to change the text in Jacopo's cavatina, ‘Io so ben qual odio atroce’, to ‘Odio solo, ed odio atroce’; here, Verdi was presumably reminded of ‘Ai perigli della guerra / Io so ben che esposto sono’ from Act II scene 3 of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

58 ‘Vindice’ is listed in Garzanti (p. 2248) as ‘letterario’.

59 In Nabucco: ‘L'idol funesto, / guerrier, struggete – qual polve al suol!’ is changed to ‘L'idol funesto, / guerrier, frangete qual polve al suol!’ (No. 13, bars 82–5). In Ernani, ‘L'aspra pugna’ is changed to ‘l'aspra guerra’ (No. 5, bars 88–91); see also the example of ‘latebra’, discussed below. Revisions in Verdi's first comic opera, Un giorno di regno, are, at least in part, of a different nature. Here, Verdi revised a libretto (by Felice Romani) originally written for Adalbert Gyrowetz in 1818. Verdi updated the libretto – to bring it in line with general trends of opera buffa – and then revised his own adaptation right up to the first performance. See Izzo, Francesco, ‘Verdi's Un giorno di regno: Two Newly Discovered Movements and Some Questions of Genre’, Acta musicologica, 73 (2002), 165–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Parker, Roger, ‘Un giorno di regno: From Romani's Libretto to Verdi's Opera’, Studi verdiani, 2 (1983), 38–58Google Scholar.

60 Giuseppe Verdi, Ernani, Critical Commentary, 71.

61 ‘Veneri’ in the sense of ‘bellezze’ is listed in Garzanti (p. 1931) as ‘letterario’.

62 See Alessandro Roccatagliati, ‘Verdis Libretti – Verdische Librettistik’, in Giuseppe Verdi und seine Zeit, 145–67. Roccatagliati refers to Verdi's concern for a ‘maximum of plasticity and expressivity’ (without providing examples) in Macbeth (p. 155).

63 Verdi to Brenna, 15 November 1843, quoted in translation in Verdi, Ernani, xvii; the original Italian is published in Conati, La bottega, 102–3.

64 See No. 10, bars 94–5. The problems concerning the finale of Attila illustrate Solera's effort of rendering more dramatically effective a draft prepared by Piave. Izzo, Francesco, ‘Verdi, Solera, Piave and the Libretto for Attila’, this journal, 21 (2010), 264Google Scholar, shows that Verdi accepted Solera's revision of Piave's work with only a few changes in punctuation and that Solera ‘improve[d] the quality of the poetry substantially, enhancing its dramatic intensity’.

65 Verdi to Brenna, 15 November 1843, quoted in translation in Verdi, Ernani, xvii; the original Italian is published in Conati, La bottega, 102–3.

66 Conati, La bottega, 91–103.

67 As a simple search on ‘google books’ for the years 1843–4 will reveal. For a contemporary meaning of the words ‘scorgere’ and ‘scoprire’, see Millhouse, Nuovo dizionario, II, 417–18.

68 ‘Questo giorno ch'omai si cede alla sera’ (Leopardi, Il passero solitario, v. 27); quoted as an example of literary use of ‘omai’ in Garzanti, 1148.

69 Listed in Garzanti (p. 893) as ‘letterario’.

70 Millhouse, Nuovo dizionario, II, 153.

71 Listed in Garzanti (p. 1211) as ‘antico o letterario’ but not in Millhouse. In fact, Millhouse lists ‘departure’ as the first translation of ‘partita’ (II, 305). In the English–Italian volume, ‘partita’ is not listed as an option for ‘departure’ (I, 136).

72 Three years later, Verdi would correct Andrea Maffei's revisions of the 1847 Macbeth libretto. See Goldin, Daniela, La vera fenice: Librettisti e libretti tra Sette e Ottocento, Piccola biblioteca Einaudi 454 (Turin, 1985), 259 and 262Google Scholar.

73 ‘Tutto questo squarcio non è abbastanza scenico: voi dite, è vero, tutto quello che si deve dire, ma la parola non scolpisce bene, non è evidente, e quindi non sorte abbastanza né l'indifferenza di Gustavo, né la sorpresa della Strega, né il terrore dei congiurati.’ Verdi to Somma, 6 November 1857, in Carteggio Verdi-Somma, ed. Ricciardi, Simonetta (Parma, 2003), 212Google Scholar. For a summary of the occurrences of ‘parola scenica’ in Verdi's correspondence, see Powers, Harold S., ‘Simon Boccanegra I. 10–12: a Generic–Genetic Analysis of the Council Chamber Scene’, 19th-Century Music, 13/2 (1989), 128CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 ‘Non so s'io mi spiego dicendo parola scenica; ma intendo dire la parola che scolpisce e rende netta ed evidente la situazione. Per esempio i versi: “In volto gli occhi affisami / E menti ancor se l'osi; Radames vive…”; Ciò e meno teatrale delle parole (brutte, se vuole): “con una parola / strapperò il tuo segreto, / Guardami, t'ho ingannata: / Radames vive…”’. Verdi to Ghislanzoni, 17 August 1870; quoted in Dahlhaus, Carl, ‘The Dramaturgy of Italian Opera’, in The History of Italian Opera, ed. Bianconi, Lorenzo and Pestelli, Giorgio, Part II, Systems, vol. VI (Chicago, 2003), 96Google Scholar; translation adapted from Kenneth Chalmers.

75 See Conati, Marcello, ‘Verdi per Napoli’, in Il Teatro di San Carlo 1737–1987, vol. II, L'opera, il ballo, ed. Cagli, Bruno and Ziino, Agostino (Naples, 1987), 226Google Scholar. Roscioni, Carlo Marinelli, ‘Cronologia 1737–1987’, in Il teatro di San Carlo, 2 vols. (Naples: Guida), II, 286Google Scholar.

76 See Stefano Castelvecchi and Jonathan Cheskin's description of the source I-Nc¹ of Alzira in The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, I/8 (Chicago, 1994), Critical Commentary, 6. Some of these modifications were subsequently copied into other manuscripts.

77 The clean copy is I-Nc³; see note 49 above.

78 Verdi, Alzira, xv.

79 In the version with the substitute cabaletta, the tempo di mezzo is transposed down a half-step (instead of up a whole-step) and via a new transition leads to the cabaletta in B-flat.

80 I-Nc¹ has ‘di frivola vendetta’.

81 See Muzio's letter to Barezzi, 9 July 1845, in Garibaldi, Luigi Agostino, Giuseppe Verdi nelle lettere di Emanuele Muzio ad Antonio Barezzi (Milan, 1931), 207–8Google Scholar.

82 Verdi to Ricordi, 20 May and 24 June 1847, in Copialettere, 39. See also Jensen, Luke, Giuseppe Verdi & Giovanni Ricordi with Notes on Francesco Lucca: From Oberto to La traviata (New York, 1989), 101–3Google Scholar.

83 Maione, Paologiovanni and Seller, Francesca, Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli, vol. III, Cronologia degli spettacoli (1851–1900) (Cava de' Tirreni, 1999), 131nGoogle Scholar.

84 In numbering the scenes, the scribe used both numerals and ordinals, underlining and no underlining. The formatting here is normalised. Text in brackets includes clarifying information added by the editor.

85 The scribe provided both a ‘,’ and a ‘–’; the latter seems to replace the former.

86 Corrected from ‘al[]’.

87 Badiali eventually sang the first performance of I due Foscari in Venice. Conati, La bottega, 151.

88 The Council of the Ten could be enlarged by a Giunta of up to twenty members. It is unclear who the twentieth member would have been. See Conati, ‘“Bel dramma …”’, 117. In the dramatis personae of his play, Marenco lists an additional Aggiunto, a character who does not actually appear in the play.

89 ‘The three heads of the criminal magistrate of Forty sat with the counsellors of the Doge. The Doge, with the six counsellors, the three heads, and the sixteen sages formed the “collegio” [I tre presidenti della Quarantìa criminale sedevano coi consiglieri del Doge. Il Doge co' sei consiglieri, i tre presidenti, e i sedici savii formavano il collegio]’. Marenco, La famiglia Foscari, 37.

90 This sentence makes sense only in the context of the play, where the town crier warns all present that the Council commands them to be forever silent about the day's events (‘In nome / Dell'eccelso Consiglio a voi s'intima / Sull'odïerno fatto alto e perenne / Silenzio’; Marenco, La famiglia Foscari, 159).