Introducing Giovannino Buonaccorsi

Abstract

Abstract Giovannino Buonaccorsi was an enslaved, Black, male soprano (presumably castrato) singer, active at the Medici court from 1651 until his death in 1674; he was frequently described in contemporary sources with the nickname “Giovannino Moro.” Buonaccorsi sang in a series of operas in the Florentine theater, La Pergola, and, in 1664, at least one season on the Venetian public stage. Details of Buonaccorsi’s life and performances survive in a remarkable number of visual, descriptive, musical, and archival sources. This chapter serves as an introduction to the information known about him (including new archival details), clearing up some of the confusions present in the extant literature. An analysis is given of the extant portrait of the singer, Ritratto di suonatore di liuto con cantore moro (Portrait of a lute player with a black singer, ca. 1662), painted by Baldassarre Franceschini, known as il Volterrano.