Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838)

Identifiers

Occupations

  • Music bookseller
  • Publisher

Ian Maxted, Exeter Working papers in Book History
May 2025

Lorenzo Da Ponte was a music bookseller and publisher in London at 134 Pall Mall 1797; 5 Pall Mall 1798–1802, 28 Haymarket 1803; 19 Jermyn Street, St. James's 1804–1805; and 15 Poland Street, Oxford Street 1804–1805. He was trading as Nardini and Da Ponte at 19 Jermyn Street in 1804 and was partner of Daniel Bastie in 1800. Charles Nicolini was also at 5 Pall Mall in 1800. He was born in 1749 in Ceneda, Veneto as Emanuele Conegliano to a Jewish father who converted to Catholicism, renaming his son Lorenzo da Ponte. He studied at Ceneda Seminary, moving to Portaguaro, where he was professor of literature. Ordained in 1773, he moved to Venice as a teacher of Latin, Italian, and French. There he met Giacomo Casanova who became a friend and role model. Lorenzo had two children by a mistress, was found guilty of public concubinage and was banished from Venice. Caterina Mazzola invited him to Dresden, where he translated libretti for the theatre. In 1784, he obtained the post of librettist to the Italian theatre in Vienna and wrote libretti for Mozart's operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutti, as well as working with the composers Salieri and Soler. He lost his patron on the death of Emperor Joseph II in 1790 and in 1792 left for Paris, which he found unsettling in the wake of the revolution of 1789.

He decided to head on to London where he was active as a printer, book and music seller from 1797 to 1805 where he published opera libretti, often with Italian and English parallel texts. He was declared bankrupt in 1800 and moved to New York in 1805, where he opened a bookstore and became the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia College. He introduced opera to New York, founding the first purpose-built opera theatre in 1833. There he wrote Memorie di Lorenzo Da Ponte, da Ceneda, memoirs of his long and picaresque life, published in three volumes 1829–30. P. Da Ponte continued as printer at 15, Poland Street, Oxford Street 1805–1809. He died in 1838 in New York after an adventurous life.

Sources: William B. Todd, A Directory of Printers and Others in Allied Trades, London & vicinity 1800–1840 (London: Printing Historical Society, 1972); trade directories; imprints of publications; Ian Maxted, "The London Imprints of Da Ponte: An Initial Checklist" (May 2024).