Silva, Joaquim Casimiro da

Joaquim Casimiro da Silva (1767-1860), father of the composer Joaquim Casimiro Júnior, was one of the most important Portuguese copyists of the first half of the nineteenth century. He was music copyist of the royal chamber (with a monthly salary of 19$200 réis) as well as of the royal S. Carlos theatre (with a monthly salary of 4$800 réis). A great number of copyists worked for him in teams, whom he supervised and to whose work he added finishing touches. His C clef is very characteristic, although in the late 1820s it changed. He authored a treatise on music copying (in manuscript and lost), written for his younger son Gabriel Casimiro, who succeeded him as copyist at the S. Carlos theatre. 

António Jorge Marques, A obra religiosa de Marcos António Portugal (1762-1830): catálogo temático, crítica de fontes e de texto, proposta de cronologia (Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 2012), pp. 195-214, 861-864.

Ernesto Vieira, Diccionário Biographico de musicos portuguezes: história e bilbiographia da musica em Portugal, 2 vols. (Lisbon, Typographia Mattos Moreira & Pinheiro, 1900), i, pp. 239-243.