1732—Venice, Italy

At St. Mark’s, when cathedral trombonist Lodovico Vaccio dies, he is replace by a trumpeter, because, in the words of the Procurators, trumpet is “an instrument better adapted to the use of modern orchestras [concerti].” Historian Denis Arnold points out that the Procurators were actually saving money with this change: whereas the new trumpeter was to be hired at a salary of 15 ducats a year, trombonists were usually paid 50 ducats (Arnold, Orchestras in Eighteenth-Century Venice).