Papers relating to the Guglielmo Ebreo manuscript

1935-1967

Walter Toscanini was born (1893) in Turin, Italy, son of maestro Arturo Toscanini. He attended the Universities of Urbino and Pavia where he obtained a law degree, although he never practiced.

During WWI as a captain posted in an Austrian farmhouse, he came across an interesting dance book. He held onto this little treasure and later found himself dating an Italian ballerina, Cia Fornaroli. He, as a matter of courting, often presented her with rare dance books he searched out just for her. This was the beginning of the wonderful, rare dance book collection of Walter Toscanini who became known as a rare book collector and dealer.

His wife, Cia Fornaroli, b. Milan 16 Oct. 1888 d. 16 Aug. 1954, is considered the greatest Italian dancer of her generation. She trained with Cecchetti and at La Scala ballet school. She was the premiere danseuse at the New York Metropolitan Opera House from 1910-1914. She danced with the Pavlova company as a prima ballerina assoluta at La Scala (1921-1932). Because of Fascist attacks on her and her husband, they moved to New York in 1933 where she conducted her own school from 1943 to 1950.

After her death, Walter Toscanini in 1955 handed over a great part of their collection of dance memorabilia to the Dance Collection and entitled it the “Cia Fornaroli Collection” as a memorial to her. He also, at that time, presented much of his personal collection of prints relating to the ballet.

The gift included more than 2,000 prints, 3,500 librettos, 850 pieces of music, 23,000 letters and manuscripts, and 15,000 clippings, photographs, and playbills.

In 1965, Walter Toscanini gave to the Dance Collection the earliest and most significant item of his collection, the Guglielmo Ebreo manuscript. Ebreo, a student of Domenico da Piacenza, wrote it probably with the help of a student, in Tuscany around 1465. He used it as a teaching tool when he instructed social dances in the Italian courts. The manuscript, entitled Trattato della danzaand De Praticha sue arte tripudii vulghare opusudum,describes the necessary qualifications of a dancer and the dances he created.

The manuscript is one of six known. The other five are stored in Paris, Florence, Modena and Siena and are formal manuscripts for court libraries. Toscanini's Ebreo manuscript is a plain, homely, practical manuscript for Ebreo's own use. It consists of 70 pages, 34-37 lines on each page of paper, with a watermark dating from about 1465. It explains the theoretical precepts of the art of dancing and gives descriptions of 23 bassedances and 32 balli.

Three of these bassedances and 13 of the balli are not found in any of the other known treatises. The manuscript has never been formally printed.

Walter Toscanini's materials related to the Ebreo manuscript were donated to the Dance Collection in 1972, one year after his death.