The castrati’s art is documented by few printed books with exercices, or treatises. The famous « Porpora’s sheet » (few exercices reputed to lead to high virtuosity) remains lost, even if a late English edition announces the contrary.

Only extant are numerous manuscript solfeggi, coposed by Neapolitan masters (Durante, Scarlatti, Leo, Aprile, etc.). In this context, the treatises by Pierfrancesco Tosi (1654-1732) and Giovanni Battista Mancini (1714-1800) are of great importance. We edited the...