Abstract:

In 1658 a festive procession was held by the Bavarian Prince-elector to celebrate the new emperor Leopold I. Reconstructing such early modern court festivals is often difficult, if not impossible, since festival reports hardly qualify as historically reliable documents. The Munich festival in 1658 is a fortunate exception thanks to the unusually rich archival material related to it. The evaluation of these hitherto unknown sources, among them the inventory of the prop room, confirms the order of the festive procession suggested by the libretto; moreover, the sources provide detailed hints concerning the costumes, the equipment of the machine and the technical realization, and they shed light on how the complex iconographic program evolved. Based on these sources, the article attempts a reconstruction of the Munich procession. This ambitious event was to become the prelude to the legendary, even more splendid festivities held four years later on the occasion of the birth of the heir to the throne in 1662, similar to events in Dresden, Paris and Vienna.