[Illustration: HOUSE IN SALZBURG WHERE MOZART WAS BORN.
About the time that Wolfgang returned home, December, 1771, Sigismund, the Archbishop, died, and Hieronymus ruled in his stead. He was a man of mean and tyrannical spirit, and his reputation had preceded him, so that when he arrived in Salzburg he was received in gloomy silence. Nevertheless there were festivities, and Wolfgang wrote "Il sogno di Scipione," a composition unworthy of his pen. It was in this same year, 1772, that Dr. Charles Burney received a letter from a correspondent, saying that the lad was still a pianoforte virtuoso of great merit, but that as a composer he had reached his limit; and the writer then moralized over musical precocities, comparing them to premature fruits. Yet at this same epoch, Wolfgang wrote the celebrated Litany "de venerabile." In November he visited Milan again to compose and put on the stage the opera "Lucio Silla." There were many obstacles before and even during the representation; but the success of the work was unquestioned. This was the last opera written by Wolfgang for Italy. The impresarios were willing and eager; but the Archbishop was reluctant in granting even ordinary favors to his servant. And here is the end of the first period of Mozart's musical career.
[Illustration: ROOM IN WHICH MOZART WAS BORN.--No. 9 GETREIDEGASSE, SALZBURG,--THIRD FLOOR.
This and an adjoining room form at present the Mozart-Museum in which are deposited all original family pictures, busts, autographs, compositions, letters, etc. Also, the spinet and grand piano used by Mozart in his later years.]