ABSTRACT
Since the early eighteenth century, when Sebastien de Brossard first described the two kinds of sonata commonly known to les Italiens as the sonata da chiesa and the sonata da camera, historians have accepted these terms as representative of late-Seicento practice. Allsop's reservations and revisions appear well founded: Corelli, whom Brossard cited as a model, never used the term "sonata da chiesa"; nor did many of his contemporaries. Seventeenth-century collections designated da chiesa e da camera refer to one of two things: a collection of works suitable for both church and chamber; or a collection of works that comprises some for church and others for chamber. The trend toward more explicit designations and toward the independence of the sonata da chiesa genre within mixed collections parallels the greater concentration of prints entirely devoted to sonatas da chiesa in the final decades of the seventeenth century.
