Question regarding Well Temp. Tuning

[Richard Moody]

> Greetings,
>     Mozart  on a fortepiano in Equal Temperament? Doesn't it seem logical,
> that if some attempt to display a historical breadth is being made, that
the
> methods of the past be applied to the instruments of the past, when the
music
> of the past is being performed?  I have to ask, why was the temperament of
> the keyboard's first 200 years disregarded?   ... Yes, there is mention of
ET in >the theorist's
> writings between 1700 and 1850,  but in comparison to the writings on
other
> tunings, as well as instructions on how to actually create them, and what
the
> music appears to do with them, there is scant support for widespread usage
of
> ET.

    Without historical evidece we will always be wondering what they used.
Theorists (of temperaments) could wirte until they were blue in the face but
that doesn mean anyone of that time followed them.   I suggest  going
through the portfolios owned by Mozart and others, to see if there are
tuning schemes tucked away on back pages or in the margins.  I have seen
these on microfilmed copies of Thomas Jefferson's personal  music, and also
that of his daughter.   If Mozart wrote anything about tuning schemes it
would have been on his music ms, or his own personal "fake book".  We wonder
why temperament wasn't mentioned in any of his letters where he talked so
much about music, musicians, the musical instruments and their makers.
     Another problem of ET was that it did not have a name nor a scheme.
Everyone knew if you tune with barely perceptible flat 5ths  wouldn't get a
wolf. This then is ET but by our standards perhaps a "quasi" ET because the
3rds which were not checked might not be as smooth as ours. But could this
procedure have been called "well tempering"?
    The interesting aspect of the Jefferson tunings and consequently
Patti's, (his daughter) is that they appear to be  instructions from a
teacher (Pasqualie??) of the rich and famous, and if he were known among
musicians of that time we might infer such tuning schemes were  known by and
used by musicians of his time.  Upon inspecting the ms, the staff lines in
many places are so faded and  handwriting goes over some notes, it is hard
to decypher. And unless they really did tune by 6ths directly, Patti seems
to have made a
few mistakes in copying from her instructor.
    I have heard that notebooks were extant of Bach's students, surely
these must have a page or two with  tuning notations on them--ric