This dissertation explores the patronage of music and theater of Lorenzo Onofrio and Maria Mancini Colonna, husband and wife and members of one of the most illustrious and ancient Roman families, in the diverse socio-cultural contexts of Rome and Venice (1659-1675). While I examine the Colonna's support of the most celebrated composers, poets, musicians, singers, and impresarios of their time (Chapter One), I also discuss two of the most compelling, and at the same time neglected aspects in the broad field of music patronage studies.

One of the overarching themes of this dissertation is the relationship between the long-established court patronage system of Rome and the nascent “business” of commercial opera theaters in Rome and Venice. The Colonna's involvement with the world of Venetian public theaters during the 1660s, which is most evident in the ways they influenced impresarios' decisions concerning the casting and recruiting of singers and the repertory to be performed, shows that the interaction and overlap between “private” and “public” worlds of opera at this time are more substantial than we used to believe (Chapter Two). After their engagement with the public theaters of Venice, the Colonna played a crucial role in the enterprise of the Teatro Tordinona, the first commercial opera theater in Rome, by shaping its repertory with Venetian-style operas by composers they had protected while in Venice (Chapter Three).

My dissertation is also one of the first studies in musicology to consider the relationship between two patrons of music who were husband and wife and who interacted so closely as did Maria and Lorenzo Onofrio. In Chapter Four I consider Maria Mancini's sponsorship of public events in the context of the restrictions imposed on married women's visibility and ability to express themselves in the conservative early-modern Roman society and argue that patronage could deftly and productively serve women's social and intellectual needs. My discussion of Maria Mancini's patronage of eccentric carnival floats and flamboyant masked parades, but also of serenate and French style ballets, shows the ways in which gender constructions influenced noblewomen's artistic patronage in Rome, shaped their self-fashioning as patrons, and affected the reception of the events they sponsored.