Querno – The Improvisation of Poetry, 1750

[“A”], “Italian Improvisatori” (The New Monthly Magazine)

Partially translating Fernow’s German treatise, this article provides an extended history of improvisatori in Italy.

Joseph Wismayr (ed.), Ephemeriden der Italiänischen Litteratur für Deutschland

This series of pamphlets bringing information about minor forms of Italian literature to German readers includes frequent accounts, discussions, and translations of improvised poetry.

Karl Ludwig Fernow, “Die Improvisatoren” (Part 2)

Fernow provides a detailed history of Italian improvisation, recounting that improvisation (in Latin) experienced a peak in popularity in the court of Pope Leo X, a lover of the art, and that in the course of the eighteenth century a renewal of popularity has brought improvisation to new heights, this time in Italian. The author gives biographies of the most famous improvisatori that he mentions.