Very rare Oratorio on St. Eloy commissioned by Barcelona’s Colegio de Plateros.

[Drama] / [Music] / Josef Cau. Las dos sillas reales fabricadas por San Eloy. Drama histórico que en los solemnes anuales cultos, que al mismo Santo, como à su Tutelar y Patron, consagra el Colegio de Plateros de esta ciudad de Barcelona, en el Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, siendo sus Mayordomos Antonio Samon y Juan Xurigué el dia 1 de Diciembre de 1799, Cantó la Capilla de Iglesia Parroquial de Santa Maria del Mar, de la misma Ciudad, siendo su Maestro el Reverendo Josef Cau Presbítero. Barcelona: Por Bernardo Pla impresor, [1799]. 4to [20.6 x 15.2 cm], [16] pp., with woodcut of St. Eloy, woodcut device depicting the silversmith’s art, and woodcut tailpiece. In contemporary plain wrapper. Stitch at lower extremity detached from wrapper, minor spotting and wrinkling. Only minor wrinkling and edge wear internally. Well preserved.
 
 
Very rare (1 copy worldwide: Bib. de Catalunya) first and only edition of this 18th-century libretto for a “Drama histórico” commissioned by the Guild of Silversmiths of Barcelona to celebrate the feast of their patron saint, San Eloy (St. Eligius or Éloi) (c. 588-660).
 
On the morning of 1 December 1799, festivities were held in the Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, and in the afternoon the oratorio, called “Las dos sillas reales fabricadas por San Eloy” (“The Two Royal Chairs Made by St. Eloy”), was performed in the church of Santa Maria del Mar.
 
The subject of the drama was the rise of San Eloy, and the characters include Kings Clotaire II and Dagobert I, both of whom he served.
 
In 1998 the musicologist Xavier Daufí published an analysis of the music of the oratorio—the work of Josep (or Josef) Cau—which he knew through a surviving manuscript. Daufí also knew the libretto through that manuscript, but he seems not to have known of the printed version offered here. Of Cau’s score Daufí remarks, “The work is curious in that it includes a clarinet in the range of instruments used. Of particular interest is that, in the sections in which the clarinet intervenes, it is used as the main instrument, whether that be to introduce important musical material, or as a solo ‘voice’. A further point of interest lies in the fact that the work is, to date, the oldest dated work composed in Catalonia requiring the participation of a clarinet” (pp. 77-8).
 
Las dos sillas reales fabricadas por San Eloy includes a frontispiece with a woodcut of St. Eloi and a woodcut depicting the instruments of the artist-silversmith. The preface provides a historical background in prose to the life of the saint.
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate 1 copy worldwide of this work: Biblioteca de Catalunya (F. Bon 1266).
 
*Xavier Daufí, “Las dos sillas reales: un oratori de Josep Cau,” Recerca Musicològica, vol. XIII (1998), pp. 77-145; María del Carmen Simón Palmer, Bibliografia de Cataluña, tomo II (1766-1820), p. 139, no. 3495; Palau y Dulcet no. 75789.