About Myntha

Myntha is a relational database web app designed by Anna Bianco in the context of her PhD research at Leiden University (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts). The technical aspects of the project have been developed by Chris Handy, Leiden University IFZ. Myntha focuses on the visual dimension of the Italian cantata, documenting, describing, and connecting the decorative drawings found in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cantata manuscripts. The database allows users to trace relationships between:

- Manuscript decorations (drawings, ornaments, vignettes)
- Their literary-musical context (the cantata texts they accompany)
- Their visual sources (prints, engravings, or other models)

By linking these layers, Myntha highlights the interplay between imagery, poetry, and cultural networks in early modern Europe.

A sister to CLORI

Myntha is conceived as a sister project to CLORI / Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana -- www.cantataitaliana.it, the major online database devoted to the Italian chamber cantata. CLORI aims to catalogue all extant sources of this genre, from its beginnings around 1620 to its last attestations in the early nineteenth century. Promoted by the Società Italiana di Musicologia in collaboration with the Centro studi sulla cantata italiana (Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Università di Pavia, Università di Siena), CLORI provides a descriptive repertory that supports in-depth, multidisciplinary research on the cantata. Myntha extends this perspective to the visual record of cantata manuscripts, offering a complementary tool that makes visible the networks of texts, images, and sources.

Who was Myntha?

In Greek mythology, Myntha (or Minthe) was a nymph associated with the underworld. According to the myth, she was transformed into the mint plant (mentha) after an ill-fated love affair with Hades. Her story embodies metamorphosis, resilience, and the persistence of traces across time, much like the decorated manuscripts that inspired this project, where fragments of imagery continue to resurface, take on new meanings, and connect past with present.