Hello!
I am currently reading Charles Burney's 1796 Monograph, Memoirs on the Life and Writings of the Abbate Metastasio. Metastasio being one of the great Italian poets of the 18th century and composer of numerous opera libretti.
Burney relates the virtuosic talents of the young Metastasio, describing his "power of making verses, extempore, on any given subject, before he was ten years old" (vol. 1, pg. 2).
This in and of itself is impressive, but not super interesting. What is more interesting is that Burney indicates that this was actually a widely practiced art, but one peculiar to Italy. For instance, in his footnote to this description, Burney writes, "This species of inspiration, allowed to the improvisatori of Italy, was long doubted in England by those who had never crossed the Alps, till the arrival of the celebrated Talassi in our country about ten years ago; when the most obstinate infidels were converted to the faith, and obliged to confess the reality of the art" (2-3).
Several references to this practice are alluded to, such as Mestastasio's mentor taking him to Naples "expressly to afford him an opportunity of singing extempore with the most celebrated Improvisatory of Italy at that time" (8). And later, in a letter to Algarotti, Metastasio says not that his skills in this regard were unique, but that it manifested in him "more early than usual" (9). In the same letter, Metastasio gives some inclination as to the aesthetic and competative atmosphere surrounding the practice, naming many of his competitors and hailing them as "veterans of the Pindaric battles" (9).
So clearly, this is a practice that is ongoing in Italy in the 18th century, with perhaps an epicenter in Naples. But Burney doesn't go into what the practice consisted of as much as I would like: What were its aesthetics and standards? What were the "Pindaric battles?" How long was this a popular practice for? Did other famous Italian poets get their start there (Zeno, Goldoni, Algarotti? Or perhaps poets from previous generations such as Tasso?) What were the general socio-economic makeup of these improvising poets? What sort of verses did they improvise, what were popular subjects and why? What mechanisms did they draw upon for their improvisations? etc.
There seems to be a whole artistic world here that Burney gives us only a peak into. I'd love to dive in!
This is why I've come to you guys. Does anyone here know of any sources that look at this practice closely?
HEY HO bet you didn’t expect a reply to this ever, but lo, I have let the IFTTT alert for this extremely good question ferment in my inbox for 25 days, and now I believe it has reached maximum potency, like a fine piece of smoked gouda. And so only now will I answer it! (Also I had to do some research which took a while.)
First, I love you for reading Burney cover to cover.
Second, I have found a couple of mentions of this practice of extemporaneous poetry, the first and most relevant is in this book, which blames the death of these baroque slam poetry fests on Enlightenment thinking, and further that Metastasio was compelled to stop rap battling because it gave him the vapors. I do not have this book in my library (I work in an academic library) but we do have the earlier book the author is citing for this section, Poetry and its public in ancient Greece : from Homer to the fifth century by Bruno Gentili, so I have gone and read the relevant passages from that.
Gentili links this practice in 18th (and early 19th century) Italy to the Greek tradition (naturally, given the title of the book), and notes that, like the Ancient Greeks, the Italians frequently invoked God or various muses before performing, giving the extemporaneous poetry a slightly divine origin to its inspiration. Also, a poet would typically do about 4-5 rounds of poetry, with the listeners giving him a fresh topic each time. He however does not provide any other social context to this poetry, like where it was performed, or to what sort of people. I’m a bit hesitant to assume that these performances were similar to other social contexts for poetry and music, but if they are, I’d hazard these performances and contests happened mostly in private salons in wealthy households, and less often in public. Gentili bases his analysis of Italian improvisational poetry on the contemporary writings of Severio Bettinelli, his works are widly available online but I can’t find them in any English translation, maybe you can run them through Google Translate and see what you can make of them?
A second mention is here, and places this poetic improvisation within the larger context of all artistic improvisation in Italian culture, including music. Improvisatory music is the area I’m much more familiar with! Improvisational work in music apparently has been studied much more than poetry, it was an expected skill of a virtuoso (of voice or instrument) through the 19th century. Also, Italy's Eighteenth Century: Gender and Culture in the Age of the Grand Tour is one of my favorite books, so if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it if you’re currently researching 18th century Italy, it’s an excellent sampling of essays. If you’re interested in improvisational work more broadly, try chapter 2 of Opera and Sovereignty: Transforming Myths in Eighteenth-Century Italy for a solid overview of the cultural importance of improvising on the aria in 18th century opera (though this book is tough reading, I warn you.)
The (in)famous Lorenzo Da Ponte also makes casual mention of this practice as being a talent of the Italians (with some nationalist waffle, he was an early proponent of Italian culture in America so that’s to be expected.) He, curiously, combines the two, apparently some people could improvise verse and music at the same time?
But looks like you’ve stumbled on something rather undeservedly understudied! I'd only vaguely heard of it (and never stopped to think about how weird it was really) and was struggling to find you any real leads on this or recent scholarship.