JAVS Spring 2026

As noted by Ulrich Drüner in his accompanying description, the manuscript appears to be the work of a professional copyist. A small number of passages are written in a different hand, though these alone do not permit definitive attribution. To assess the manuscript further, I consulted Boccherini handwriting specialist Loukia Drosopoulou, who provided the following assessment: I don’t recognise the copyist nor can I see any additions in the hand of Boccherini, but this is not something to count against the potential authenticity of the work. It just doesn’t support it on the grounds of the copyist. The detailed performance markings and some of the terms that are used, such as rinf. and calando are used in Boccherini’s works but that too isn’t conclusive evidence for its authenticity. 15 Drosopoulou emphasized that neither the absence of a recognizable copyist nor the presence of stylistically consistent performance markings is sufficient, on its own, to confirm or deny authenticity. She recommended tracing the manuscript’s ownership history and examining paper watermarks as potential avenues for establishing provenance. In her concluding remarks, she noted:

Even if you can’t make any firm conclusions about the authenticity of the work you might still be able to piece together an interesting story about the manuscript and the work, and it is also useful to know about works not listed in Gerard’s catalogue even if they are doubtful works. 16 When asked whether the manuscript’s appearance suggested a particular geographic origin or period, she responded: “I think the manuscript looks eighteenth century and the handwriting could be Italian but I can’t definitely say that not knowing anything about the origin of the manuscript.” 17 eighteenth-century appearance, and stylistically consistent performance markings—neither confirm nor contradict the attribution to Luigi Boccherini. With no identifiable watermark and no documented ownership prior to the 2006 auction, the work must, for now, be classified as a doubtful composition within Boccherini’s corpus. 18 Importantly, this designation reflects the current limits of available evidence rather than evidence against authorship. Given that no alternative composer has been proposed beyond the attribution printed on the title page, further insight may be gained by examining the manuscript in relation to Boccherini’s compositional chronology and stylistic practices. Taken together, the physical characteristics of the manuscript—copyist hand, absence of watermark,

Figure 1. Facsimile of Notturno per violino e viola obbligati del sig. Luigi Boccherini.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2026