¹ For details on Gaspar van Weerbeke’s biography, see G. Croll and A. Lindmayr-Brandl, ‘Weerbeke, Gaspar van’, Grove Music Online, www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/30008 (accessed 24 Feb. 2017).

² E. F. Fiedler, Die Messen des Gaspar van Weerbeke, Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 26 (Tutzing, 1997), p. 54; Liber missarum: An Editorial Transnotation of the Manuscript Capella Sistina 51, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, 6 vols., ed. R. Eakins, Institute of Mediaeval Music, 17 (Ottawa, 1999–2005); vol. 4 (2004), pp. xxvi–cxxviii and 94–158; Gaspar van Weerbeke, Collected Works, Masses I, ed. A. Pavanello, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 106/1 (n.p., 2016).

³ Liber missarum 4, ed. Eakins, pp. xxvi–xxvii. As far as we know today, of all the Ordinary cycles included in Capp. Sist. 51, one of the most important sources of polyphonic masses of that time, O Venus bant is the mass that enjoyed the widest dissemination. Even if one considers the fragmentary transmission of the mass in Continental sources, this does not affect the general picture, pointing to a special position of this cycle in the context of Weerbeke’s compositional output.

⁴ E. F. Fiedler, ‘Heinrich Finck, Gaspar van Weerbeke und die Göttin Venus: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Cantus-firmus-Praxis im frühen 16. Jahrhundert’, in L. Finscher (ed.), Renaissance-Studien: Helmuth Osthoff zum 80. Geburtstag, Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 11 (Tutzing, 1979), pp. 29–55, at pp. 50–5; Fiedler, Die Messen, pp. 50–1 (in this later publication, Fiedler also pondered the possibility that O Venus bant might be a Marian mass).

⁵ In the Appendix the text is provided with an English translation. The poem is actually about a lover who is unhappy that his mistress does not return his love. Thus it is disputable whether it would be used for a marriage. I shall return to this below. The Flemish text of the chanson is printed in J. van Benthem. ‘O venus bant: De minnaar in tweestrijd’, in R. C. Wegman and E. Vetter (eds.), Liber amicorum Chris Maas: Essays in Musicology in Honour of Chris Maas on his 65th Anniversary (Amsterdam, 1987), pp. 26–34. F. van Duyse’s edition (F. van Duyse, Het oude Nederlandsche lied. Eerste deel (The Hague and Antwerp, 1903), pp. 461–6) is available online: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/duys001oude01_01/duys001oude01_01_0122.php (acc. 16 Feb. 2017). See also J. Des Prez, New Edition of the Collected Works, 27: Secular Works for Three Voices, ed. J. van Benthem and H. M. Brown (Utrecht, 1987), Critical apparatus, pp. 188–99.

⁶ According to Fiedler, the mass O venus bant might have originated in Flanders before Weerbeke moved to Italy because it is more strongly oriented towards Du Fay’s model than Weerbeke’s other early mass, Ave regina caelorum. His argumentation, however, remains rather general. See Fiedler, Die Messen, pp. 44–5.

⁷ C. A. Miller, ‘Early Gaffuriana: New Answers to Old Questions’, Musical Quarterly, 56 (1970), pp. 367–88, at p. 373 ff.; Fiedler, Die Messen, p. 44.

⁸ A. Roth, Studien zum frühen Repertoire der Päpstlichen Kapelle unter dem Pontifikat Sixtus’ IV. (1471–1484): Die Chorbücher 14 und 51 des Fondo Cappella Sistina der Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Capellae apostolicae Sixtinaeque collectanea acta monumenta (Vatican City, 1991), pp. 310–27, at pp. 322–3.

⁹ Ibid., Fig. 53. The strange object alongside the two vases might even resemble a gallows. The manuscript is available online on the website of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Details of the drawings are very clearly visible in the digitised manuscript (http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Capp.Sist.51, fol. 135r; acc. 28 July 2017). Roth also discusses other images in decorated initials to be found in this mass and in the rest of the manuscript, which are not of immediate relevance in this context (Roth, Studien zum frühen Repertoire, pp. 99–127, 254–68).

¹⁰ Roth gives a detailed explanation, relating the drawings of the manuscript to the circumstances that led to the wedding of Ercole I and Eleonora of Aragon. The Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, and Alfonso V of Aragon agreed in 1455, a year after the peace of Lodi, on a double marriage between their families: Ippolita Sforza was to marry the eldest son of Ferrante, Alfonso, and Eleonora of Aragon was promised to Sforza Maria Sforza, the third son of Francesco Sforza. Since Francesco Sforza died before the second marriage was completed and the new duke, his son Galeazzo Maria, imposed new conditions that Ferrante refused, the marriage was annulled. Thanks to a papal dispensation, Eleonora then married Ercole d’Este. In Roth’s opinion, the device with the dangling objects symbolises Sforza Maria Sforza, whilst the vases would represent Ercole (the smaller one) and Ferrante (the larger one), the winner of the game. Roth suggests that Weerbeke’s mass originated in connection with these events. He does not indicate a place for the composition, although the date would imply that it happened in Milan. See Roth, Studien zum frühen Repertoire, pp. 317–24.

¹¹ Ibid., pp. 345–48, 393–4, passim.

¹² The first objections are to be found in the reviews of the book: P. Starr, in Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 49 (1992), pp. 536–8; R. C. Wegman, in Early Music, 20 (1992), pp. 152–3; M. P. Brauner in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 46 (1993), pp. 306–12.

¹³ Flynn Warmington brought new arguments to bear against Roth’s thesis and proposed a different provenance (Florence and Venice) in two papers (1991, 1994) that have not appeared in print, but which several scholars have referred to in the discussion of the dating of Capp. Sist. 14 and Capp. Sist. 51. (I am grateful to Jeffrey Dean for sending me the hand-out of the paper delivered at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference at Glasgow in 1994, with examples of the illuminations of the Pico master.) Warmington’s hypotheses were rejected by Roth in an article that reasserted his position regarding the Neapolitan provenance of the manuscripts: A. Roth, ‘Dove sono stati compilati i manoscritti CS14 e CS15?’, in P. Gargiulo (ed.), La musica a Firenze al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico: Congresso internazionale di studi, Quaderni della Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 30 (Florence, 1993), pp. 69–100. Emilia Talamo examined the illuminations in Capp. Sist. 14 and Capp. Sist. 51, signalling a complex of iconographic elements that she identifies as deriving from the Ferrarese school; according to Talamo, these features, together with those from Venice and southern Italy, would suggest Ferrarese provenance for the two manuscripts, or a possible commission on the part of the House of Este. See E. Talamo, ‘Schede’, in G. Morello and S. Maddalo (eds.),Liturgia in figura (Vatican City, 1995), pp. 174–8. The Ferrarese hypothesis has also been proposed by R. Sherr, in Masses for the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cappella Sistina, MS 14, ed. R. Sherr, Monuments of Renaissance Music, 13 (Chicago, 2009), pp. 8–18.

¹⁴ To verify Roth’s claims, I have checked all his references. I have also done extensive research to understand the value attributed to the vase, and in particular the emblems used by the particular families mentioned and in general. As reported by Roth, the motif of the vase appears on coins with the portrait of Leonello d’Este by Pisanello (U. Davitt Asmus, Corpus quasi vas: Beiträge zur Ikonographie der italienischen Renaissance (Berlin, 1977), images 1, 3–4 after p. 40), but without any flowers. Yet the vase with two handles in the manuscript is clearly characterised by flowers and is much more similar to other emblems, particularly the pot with the five lilies of Ferrante of Aragon. In Capp. Sist. 51 the vase has features that are sufficiently different to negate a specific and direct connection with the Este emblem, even considering the wider symbolic use of the vase in the iconography, and its widespread use as an ornamental element, not necessarily linked to personal emblems. On the broad meaning and symbolism of the vase, see Davitt Asmus, Corpus quasi vas, cited by Roth (in this book the vase is studied in different iconographic contexts; for Pisanello, see pp. 17–40). On the Este emblems, see P. Di Pietro Lombardi, ‘Gli Este e i loro più significativi emblemi’, in J. Bentini and C. Balsamo (eds.), Gli Este a Ferrara: Una corte nel Rinascimento (Milan, 2004), pp. 81–4.

¹⁵ The emblem can be seen, for instance, in the database French Emblems at Glasgow (http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/emblem.php?id=FPAb026, accessed 28 July 2017); it adorns manuscripts that belonged to the Sforza. With regard to this, see, for example, the exhibition catalogue Milano e gli Sforza: Gian Galeazzo e Ludovico il Moro, Biblioteca Trivulziana 28 febbraio–20 marzo 1983, ed. G. Bologna (Milan, 1983), pp. 47, 173; G. Cambin, Le rotelle milanesi bottino della battaglia di Giornico 1478: Stemmi, imprese, insegne/Die Mailander Rundschilde: Beute aus der Schlacht bei Giornico 1478: Wappen, Sinnbilder, Zeichen (Fribourg, 1987), pp. 147, 273, 419, 425, passim; Stemmario Trivulziano, ed. C. Maspoli (Milan, 2000), pp. 29–30, 42, 61.

¹⁶ Concerning the decorations of the manuscript, we need to remember that the people who did the work were not necessarily experts in coats of arms and emblems or had a direct relation to the commission.

¹⁷ For a particularly characteristic iconography found in the manuscript, see Agnese Pavanello, ‘Fortuna on the Dolphin: Notes on an Iconographic Motif in Cappella Sistina 14 and 51’, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 67 (2017), pp. 51–67.

¹⁸ In particular on the significance of the cantus firmus, namely of the musical borrowing of pre-existent melodies for Christological purposes, see the synthesis and the observations offered by A. Kirkman, The Cultural Life of the Early Polyphonic Mass: Medieval Context to Modern Revival (Cambridge and New York, 2010), pp. 43–76. More specifically, for an exploration of the ‘chanson mass’ and the use of love songs as a compositional reference in mass cycles to express mystical or sacred love (in the assimilation of a courtly lady with the Blessed Virgin), see M. Jennifer Bloxam, ‘A Cultural Context for the “Chanson Mass”’, in H. Meconi (ed.), Early Musical Borrowing (New York and London, 2014), pp. 7–35. As Bloxam observes, the chanson mass, which first emerged in the Burgundian or French area in the early fifteenth century, shows a direct connection with courtly environments. On the supposed use of cantus firmi in relation to a marriage, see A. Walters Robertson, ‘The Man with the Pale Face, the Shroud, and Du Fay’s Missa Se la face ay pale’, Journal of Musicology, 27 (2010), pp. 377–434, at pp. 380–8.

¹⁹ Eric Verroken recently published his research findings on Weerbeke’s family, bringing new evidence about Weerbeke’s presence in Oudenaarde among the members of a Marian confraternity at the end of the 1460s. Even if concrete facts concerning Weerbeke’s musical career before moving to Milan are still unknown, Verroken’s contribution opens new paths for future research. See Erik Verroken, ‘Gaspar van Weerbeke (ca. 1445 – † na 1517), een Oudenaards componist’, Handelingen van de Geschied- en Oudheidkundige Kring van Oudenaarde, 55 (2018), pp. 129–72 (an English translation of this study will appear in the Journal of the Alamire Foundation in 2020).

²⁰ As pointed out above, we must remember that none of Weerbeke’s other masses achieved comparable fame, even those works he certainly composed when he held positions in leading institutions. His masses copied in Capp. Sist. 35, which were probably written in the 1480s when he was cantor capellanus at the papal court in Rome, are transmitted in no more than three or four sources (also including the Petrucci print). The same is true for the Missa Ave regina caelorum, which shares with O Venus bant the prestige of having been copied in one of the two oldest Sistine codices. See Fiedler, Die Messen, pp. 66–7, 92–3; Masses for the Sistine Chapel, ed. Sherr; Gaspar van Weerbeke, Collected Works, Masses I. For an overview of Weerbeke’s sources, see A. Lindmayr-Brandl, ‘Die Gaspar van Weerbeke-Gesamtausgabe: Addenda et Corrigenda zum Werkverzeichnis’, in W. Gratzer and A. Lindmayr (eds.), De editione musices: Festschrift Gerhard Croll zum 65. Geburtstag (Laaber, 1992), pp. 51–64. For an updated list of Weerbeke’s sources see http://www.gaspar-van-weerbeke.sbg.ac.at/home.html (accessed 10 Dec. 2018).

²¹ On the lack of repertory, especially of motets, see J. Rifkin, ‘A Black Hole? Problems in the Motet around 1500’, in T. Schmidt-Beste (ed.), The Motet around 1500: On the Relationship of Imitation and Text Treatment? (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 21–82.

²² Du Fay’s mass with the most extensive transmission is the Missa L’homme armé, found in five surviving sources. For an overview of the transmission, see The Mass Database (MDB) at http://www.mdb.uni-mainz.de/Default.aspx, or, for more detailed information, the Digital Archive of Medieval Music, https://www.diamm.ac.uk/ (accessed 24 July 2017).

²³ Bloxam, ‘A Cultural Context for the “Chanson Mass”’, pp. 8, 29.

²⁴ On the copying of the Modena manuscript, see L. Lockwood, Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1400–1505: The Creation of a Musical Centre in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1984), pp. 168, 171, 216–17, 222–4; in addition, see the recent study by M. Steib, ‘Herculean Labours: Johannes Martini and the Manuscript Modena, Biblioteca estense, MS α.M.1.13’, Early Music History, 33 (2014), pp. 183–257.

²⁵ A. Dewitt, ‘Boek- en bibliotheekwezen in de Brugse Sint-Donaaskerk XIII^e–XV^e eeuw’, in J. van den Heuvel (ed.), Sint-Donaas en de voormalige Brugse Katedraal (Bruges, 1978), pp. 61–95, at p. 92; R. Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford, 1985), p. 138. I am grateful to Rob C. Wegman for making available to me the reproductions of the original documents of St Donatian.

²⁶ Milan, Archivio della Veneranda fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 3 (olim MS 2267), fols. 99^v–106 (see Milan, Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 3 (olim 2267), Facsimile Edition, ed. H. Mayer Brown, Renaissance Music in Facsimile, 12c (New York and London, 1987); modern edition in the series Archivium Musices Metropolitanum Mediolanense, vol. 6, Anonimi, ed. F. Fano (Milan, 1966), pp. 131–56. On this mass see below.

²⁷ Weerbeke travelled to Flanders twice at the beginning of the 1470s to find new singers for the Sforza chapel. Gerhard Croll and then Paul and Lora Merkley suggested that specific repertory created for the chapel possibly was composed as the chapel reached its full size, namely from about 1473. See G. Croll, ‘Das Motettenwerk Gaspar van Weerbeke’, Dissertation, Universität Göttingen, 1954, pp. 4, 6; P. A. Merkley and L. M. Merkley, Music and Patronage in the Sforza Court, Studi sulla storia della musica in Lombardia, 3 (Turnhout, 1999), pp. 77, 80.

²⁸ E. Dürr, Galeazzo Maria Sforza und seine Stellung zu den Burgunderkriegen: Eine Untersuchung über die südfranzösisch-italiänische Politik Karls des Kühnen (Basel, 1911), p. 311.

²⁹ B. Corio, Storia di Milano, revised and commented by E. De Magri (Milan, 1855–7), p. 298. The book was first published in 1503.

³⁰ It should not be forgotten that Francesco Sforza sent the young Galeazzo Maria to France in support of Louis’s troops as a part of his military training.

³¹ Bona of Savoy, Galeazzo Maria’s wife, was the sister of Amadeus IX, husband of Yolande. In the early 1470s Yolande repeatedly welcomed the request of Galeazzo Maria to send her singers to Milan on important occasions or events. On this point, see Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, pp. 33–41.

³² On the political grounds that led to the League of Moncalieri and its political significance see Dürr, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, esp. pp. 290–30; M. N. Covini, L’esercito del Duca: Organizzazione militare e istituzioni al tempo degli Sforza (1450–1480) (Rome, 1998), pp. 337–41.

³³ E. Sestan, Carteggi diplomatici fra Milano sforzesca e la Borgogna, i (8 marzo 1453–12 luglio 1475) (Rome, 1985), pp. 381–98.

³⁴ Letter by Pietro Panigarola of 3 April from Neuss; see Sestan, Carteggi diplomatici, p. 440.

³⁵ From Galeazzo Maria’s letter to Giovanni Pietro Panigarola of 12 April 1475, in Sestan, Carteggi diplomatici, pp. 458–64, at p. 463: ‘Item, havemo ordinato de publicare questa liga el dì de sancto Zorzo proximo, et così zà è dato ordine de scrivere le lectere et fare le crida secondo la forma che te mandiamo qui inclusa; siamo contenti et volemo monstri el tutto ad quello illustrissimo signor duca, avisandone che ad la publicatione d’essa liga in dicto dì de sancto Giorgio se li trovaranno presenti tanto numero de belle gente d’arme et bene in poncto, che quando quello Signore le vedessi, siamo certi li piaceranno … [Item, we have ordered to make public this alliance at the next feast of St George, and therefore it was ordered to write the letters and to herald it in the manner that we send to you here; we are glad and we wish that you show everything to that illustrious duke, saying that, when the alliance will be made public in that day of St George, such a great number of armed men in good trim will be present, that when that Lord will see them, we are sure he will like them.].’

³⁶ Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, p. 220.

³⁷ See G. Lubkin, A Renaissance Court: Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1994), p. 215.

³⁸ Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, p. 177. New clothes were distributed twice a year, on Christmas and on St George’s Day. Concerning the feast of St George and its ceremonial in Milan, see ibid., pp. 217–28.

³⁹ Ibid., p. 220. More details on the new clothing that was ordered are given by Lubkin, A Renaissance Court, pp. 215–16.

⁴⁰ Lubkin, A Renaissance Court, p. 216.

⁴¹ Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, pp. 222–3 (the Merkleys translate the reference to the clothes with ‘turkish costumes’, which could be misleading. The ‘turca’ was a long and solemn garment open on the front, often used by persons holding institutional positions and here meant to show the relevant role of the singers in the ceremony. The document is transcribed in full by M. Albertario, ‘Documenti per la decorazione del Castello di Milano nell’età di Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1466–1476)’, Solchi, 7, nn. 1–2 (2003), pp. 19–61, at pp. 56–8. The particular significance of St George for the Milanese rulers is also evident from the costume in which the dukes were to be portrayed, painted or sculpted as St George, as the sculpture of Giangaleazzo Visconti in the Museum of the Duomo and a fresco in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan clearly testify.

⁴² The general contents of the poem would not be in contrast with this assumption if one considers the political tension that existed between the duchies of Burgundy and of Milan before signing the league. A political reading of the text might also be possible, as suggested below.

⁴³ A good number of the masses copied in Bruges in the same years are defined as ‘new’. Even if this specification is missing for the copying of O Venus bant, it does not mean that it was not the case. As a whole the documentation reveals a tendency to collect new repertory for St Donatian. Cfr. Dewitt, ‘Boek- en bibliotheekwezen’, pp. 61–95.

⁴⁴ For a general description of the structure of the mass, see Fiedler, Die Messen, pp. 58–65.

⁴⁵ This O Venus bant tune has been reconstructed by Richard Taruskin, who referred to it as ‘version I’. However, by examining the extant chansons on O Venus bant and discussing the former assumption, based on later Flemish sources, that two versions of the O Venus bant tune were in use at Weerbeke’s time, Taruskin convincingly argues that the supposed two versions derive from a single one, and that the variants originated in the polyphonic elaboration of the melody. The treatment of the melodic material in Weerbeke’s mass confirms this view. As the following discussion will explain, taking as a starting point the earliest O Venus bant tradition, namely the polyphonic one, suggests a different approach to the issue of the identification of an original monophonic tune. See O Venus bant: Ten Settings in Three and Four Parts, ed. R. Taruskin (Miami, 1979), pp. 2–4. In the edition of the poem in Van Duyse, Het oude Nederlandsche lied, p. 465, O Venus bant is provided with the melody found in later Flemish sources (‘version II’) and also used for the sacred version of the text, O Jhesus bant. Weerbeke’s tenor melody appears in Van Duyse where the three-voice setting ascribed to Josquin (and actually also to Weerbeke) is mentioned (cf. below, n. 59).

⁴⁶ See the incipit of He Robinet as given in El Escorial, Palacio Real, Monasterio de S. Lorenzo, MS IV.a.24, fol. 4^v at http://chansonmelodies.sbg.ac.at/db/welcome.php, accessed 12 July 2017. On this aspect see below.

⁴⁷ For Weerbeke’s mass Capp. Sist. 51 has the canonic instruction ‘descenderunt in profundum quasi lapis’ (in Petrucci: ‘descendat in profundum’; in Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Santa Maria Maggiore 26 ‘in diapason descende’). Busnoys uses the canon ‘Ubi thesis assint ceptra, / ibi arsis et e contra’ to indicate inversion of the cantus firmus with transposition of the part at the fifth below. The tenor is in tempus imperfectum prolatio maior and the other voices in dupla O2. See A. Busnois, Collected Works, ed. R. Taruskin (New York, 1990–), ii, p. 41. Ockeghem’s canon ‘descendendo in diapason’ is very similar to that used by Weerbeke, and indicates, as already mentioned, the same procedure. See J. Ockeghem, Missa L’homme armé, ed. J. van Benthem,Masses and Mass Sections, ii, 2 (Utrecht, 1999), p. 24. On this canonic inscription, see the catalogue by B. J. Blackburn in K. Schiltz, Music and Riddle Culture in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 2015), p. 383. Blackburn kindly reminds me that Ramis de Pareja included the canon in his treatise Musica practica (Bologna, 1482; facsimile Bologna, 1969) in the chapter among the inscriptions (Part III, ch. 4 [p. 72]) using the variant ‘Descendat’ rather than ‘Descenderunt’ with ‘in profundum quasi lapis’, which comes from Exodus 15:5, and refers to the drowning of Pharaoh’s soldiers in the Red Sea. If Ramis had Weerbeke’s mass in mind – Blackburn observes – this would be another early reference and indication of how well the mass O Venus bant was known at the time.

⁴⁸ The tenor in Agnus I is written in tempus imperfectum prolatio maior while the other voices are in tempus perfectum; in Agnus III the tenor is in tempus imperfectum, the other voices in tempus imperfectum diminutum. Interestingly, Weerbeke’s mass is mentioned as an example of the use of subdupla by Gaffurius in his treatise on proportions together with Busnoys’s L’homme armé (and also with the Missa Spiritus almus by Domarto and Amor tu dormi by Bernardus Ycart). Fiedler,Die Messen, p. 44.

⁴⁹ Even if the Flemish text is more in the tradition of amour courtois lyrics, the melody has a clarity and simplicity in the rhythmic and melodic pace that enables us to trace this parallel. In this sense one can use the definition ‘popular’.

⁵⁰ Alejandro Planchart’s convincing argument that the L’hommé armé melody originated at the court of Burgundy and thus, in this sense, is not to be properly framed as a ‘popular tune’ does not affect the validity of the parallel underlined here. See the following note.

⁵¹ An impressive number of studies have been devoted to the L’homme armé tradition. An essential selection is given in the recent The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music, ed. A. M. Busse Berger and J. Rodin (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 81–3: here Jesse Rodin (‘The L’Homme armé Tradition – and the Limits of Musical Borrowing’, pp. 69–83) discusses the different hypotheses on the origin of the tradition proposed over the years, and, among them, the most widely accepted one related to the Burgundian court and the knightly order founded by Philip the Good. Among the major studies that have helped frame the L’homme armé tradition in Burgundy and in particular within the activities of the order of the Golden Fleece are especially to be mentioned W. F. Prizer, ‘Music and Ceremonial Music in the Low Countries: Philip the Fair and the Order of the Golden Fleece’, Early Music History, 5 (1985), pp. 113–53; R. Taruskin, ‘Antoine Busnoys and the L’homme armé Tradition’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 39 (1986), pp. 255–93; more recently, A. E. Planchart, ‘The Origin and Early History of L’homme armé’, Journal of Musicology, 20 (2003), pp. 305–57. I especially refer to this latter contribution for the Burgundian connection relevant here as well as for additional information concerning this topic and the progressive discoveries and hypotheses on L’homme armé masses. Although for the purpose of the present study, the different hypotheses on the interrelationships between the earliest masses on the L’homme armé tune are not of immediate concern, the reconstruction proposed by Planchart, who sees Du Fay as the initiator of the tradition of the masses on that cantus firmus, and suggests instead the year 1468 for Busnoys’s L’homme armé mass, would suit well the idea that Weerbeke knew Busnoys’s mass and made reference to it in O Venus bant. In 1468 he was in Flanders (as a document found by Eric Verroken attests; see above, n. 19), and it is likely that events such as the official meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece or the wedding of Charles with Margaret of York were not unknown to him. That Weerbeke had already sketched or partially composed the mass of O Venus bant in Flanders before leaving for Milan cannot, of course, be completely dismissed. If so, he would then have completed and performed the work in Milan, from which the mass would have spread more widely. Yet in favour of an entirely (or almost entirely) Milanese origin, together with the arguments presented above, speaks the transmission of the whole O Venus bant complex – as the remarks below will clarify.

⁵² On the affinities between St George’s feast and ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Fleece, see Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, pp. 229–33. From the correspondence between Galeazzo and his agent in Burgundy we know, however, that Charles the Bold invited Galeazzo to join the Order to cement the covenant with the league. Yet Galeazzo showed little interest in the offer, perhaps because he was suspicious of having to give his word on trust before reading the statutes, which were disclosed only with the formal act of membership. From a letter of Antonio Appiano of July 1475 we learn, however, that Ferrante of Aragon would have rejected his membership in the order of the Golden Fleece in the case that Galeazzo would have joined it. See Sestan, Carteggi diplomatici, pp. 423–5, 576–7. From this correspondence (letter of G. P. Panigarola to Galeazzo sent from Neuss in March 1475, in Sestan, Carteggi diplomatici, p. 424) we have a confirmation that the statutes of the Order were brought to Naples together with the order’s chain of the Golden Fleece on behalf of Charles the Bold, as argued in R. Woodley, ‘Tinctoris’s Italian Translation of the Golden Fleece Statutes: A Text and a (Possible) Context’, Early Music History, 8 (1988), pp. 173–244, at p. 175. It is very likely that, for this major event, the manuscript with six masses on the L’homme armé melody (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuelle III, MS VI E 40), dedicated to Beatrice of Aragon, arrived in Naples as part of Antoine the Grand Bastard’s trip. This idea has already been suggested by K. van der Heide, ‘New Claims for a Burgundian Origin of the “L’homme armé” Tradition, and a Different View on the Relative Positions of the Earliest Masses in the Tradition’, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 55 (2005), pp. 3–33, at p. 31. On the importance of this manuscript for the reconstruction of the history of the L’homme armé tune, see Planchart, ‘The Origin and Early History’, pp. 305–57.

⁵³ Notably, the mistress’s ‘preference for another lover’ and references such as that to a ‘rival’s gossip’ or to a ‘not fair behaviour’ and even to the hope that ‘she in word and deed will be well mannered’ may be easily interpreted on another level, namely in terms of political tension or instability within the recently allied duchies in relation to their different territorial and foreign policy. It is worth pointing out that the alliance did not last long, and that Yolande even became Charles’s prisoner some months later, whilst Galeazzo re-embraced his traditional position as an ally of the French crown. For more details on Burgundian politics and the intricate relationships of Charles with Savoy and Milan, see Richard Vaugham, Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy (Woodbridge, new edn 2002; orig. edn 1973), pp. 359–98; moreover, in particular for an analysis of Charles the Bold’s Italian policy, see R. J. Walsh, Charles the Bold and Italy (1467–1477): Politics and Personnel (Liverpool, 2005), pp. 2–58.

⁵⁴ Discarding the hypothesis that Du Fay’s mass was composed for a wedding, Robertson instead advanced arguments for its composition when Louis of Savoy acquired the Holy Shroud in 1453. See Robertson, ‘The Man with the Pale Face’.

⁵⁵ The mass is transmitted without the Kyrie – which seems to connect the composition with Ambrosian usage, although we do not know if the mass was originally conceived in this way. In the Libroni there are other cases of masses copied without the Kyrie, but which are transmitted in complete form in other sources. Edition: Anonymous, Missa O Venus bant for 5 voices, Milan, Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione musicale, Librone 3, fols. 99^v–106; Librone 3, facsimile; Anonimi, Messe, ed. F. Fano, Archivium musices metropolitanum Mediolanense, 6 (Milan, 1966), pp. 131–56.

⁵⁶ E. F. Fiedler, ‘Missa “loco cantoribus”?: Gedanken über Ausnahmefälle’, in P. Cahn und A.-K. Heimer (eds.),De musica et cantu: Studien zur Geschichte der Kirchenmusik und der Oper. Helmut Hucke zum 60. Geburtstag (Hildesheim, 1993), pp. 411–18; Fiedler, Studien zu den Messen, p. 51.

⁵⁷ The emphasis not only on imitation at the unison or octave, but also on the repetition of identical melodic fragments within the same voice and the repeated cadences on G, as well as a substantial number of melodic leaps may be read accordingly, especially in consideration of the extant polyphonic chanson settings on O Venus bant, mostly of instrumental character (briefly discussed below). Moreover, taking into account the perspective of an instrumental performance, it is not easy to find a motivation for the setting of this mass and its uniformity of clefs. Instrumental pieces of the period (or in all probability intended for instrumental performance) demonstrate a use of clefs similar to that of vocal pieces, with differentiation of registers and clefs (for example, in the Casanatense manuscript or in the prints of Ottaviano Petrucci). It cannot be determined whether the voces aequales are to be explained as differentiated in sound or assume a particular spatial arrangement in order to enhance their separation (the frequent repetitions and imitations would probably produce a better effect). In any case, there is no evidence to assume a discrepancy between the manner of notation and the realisation in sound (e.g. with reading an octave above or below). From a letter dated 15 November 1477 we learn that a mass ‘notata quale solevano solamente cantare in tenore e incontra [notated mass which was usually only sung by tenor and contra voices]’ was sent to Pisa at the request of Ludovico il Moro, who was there, by Antonio Guinati, chapel master of the ducal court in Milan. The short verbal characterisation could match the anonymous mass O Venus bant, also considering that in the Libroni of the Milanese Duomo no other mass corresponds to this description. Yet if the mass were the same, the reference to ‘cantare’ would suggest a vocal performance (as well as its copying into a vocal manuscript). However, there are no clues to confirm such a supposition, and the absence of a title leaves other options open – especially taking into account that no sources expressly produced for the Sforza chapel have survived. The document is cited in P. A. Merkley, ‘Ludovico Sforza as an “Emerging Prince”: Networks of Musical Patronage in Milan’, in P. A. Merkley (ed.), Music and Patronage (Farnham, 2012), pp. 255–70, at p. 259. I would like to thank Marie Verstraete for calling my attention to this citation.

⁵⁸ Whereas on Christmas Day Galeazzo usually attended at three masses – as it was (as Corio reports; Storia di Milano, p. 301) and still is usual, the same number of masses is mentioned above for the festivities held on the occasion of the public proclamation of the alliance of Moncalieri in Neuss by Charles the Bold.

⁵⁹ D. Fallows, A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs, 1415–1480 (Oxford, 1999), p. 476. An edition with comments on different settings was made by R. Taruskin in O Venus bant: Ten Settings in Three and Four Parts. Under Alexander Agricola’s name two different chansons O Venus bant have survived (in Taruskin’s edition nos. 2 and 8). The version transmitted in Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, MS 2856, fols. 78^v–80^r (with a concordance in Segovia, Cathedral Archives, s.s., MS without shelf no., fol. 174^v), is probably the oldest one among the surviving sources of this setting (the manuscript 2856 is traditionally dated to c. 1479–81, but it may be from 1485 after new unpublished findings by B. Blackburn). It freely elaborates in all voices the melody and its contrapuntal lines– both ‘version I’ and ‘version II’ of the O Venus bant tune, to which Taruskin refers, and which are to be seen as one being the counterpoint of the other (as in Weerbeke’s Mass; see Example 1 above). Agricola’s second chanson, transmitted in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Banco Rari 229, fols. 70^v–71^r (and in the Segovia, Cathedral Archives, s.s., MS without shelf no., fol. 188^v as well as in Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Giulia XIII. 27, fols. 15^v–16^r), is based on the so-called version I of melody used throughout in the tenor (as in Weerbeke’s mass and in the chanson ascribed to him, as well as in the anonymous Mass of the Milanese Librone 3). In giving an overview of the arrangements based on the melody O Venus bant Eric Fiedler also discusses the issue of the interrelationships between the two melodic lines (Die Messen, p. 46). For an overview of the transmission concerning O Venus bant, see also the Dutch Song Database: http://www.liederenbank.nl in addition to the DIAMM database.

⁶⁰ Seville, Biblioteca Colombina, MS 5-1-43, new fols. 135^v–136^r. Faksimile-Ausgabe der Handschriften Sevilla 5-I-43 & Paris N. A. Fr. 4379 (Pt. 1) / Facsimile Reproduction of the Manuscripts Sevilla 5-I-43 & Paris N. A. Fr. 4379 (Pt. 1), ed. D. Plamenac, Veröffentlichungen mittelalterlicher Musikhandschriften, 8 / Publications of Mediaeval Musical Manuscripts, 8 (New York, 1962). On this source see A. A. Moerk, ‘The Seville Chansonnier: An Edition of Seville 5-1-43 and Paris n.a.fr. 4379 (part 1)’, 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., Morgantown: West Virginia University, 1971).

⁶¹ T. L. Noblitt, ‘Die Datierung der Handschrift Mus. ms. 3154 der Staatsbibliothek München’, Die Musikforschung, 27 (1974), pp. 26–56; Der Kodex des Magister Nicolaus Leopold: Staatsbibliothek München Mus. ms. 3154, 4 vols., ed. T. L. Noblitt, Das Erbe deutscher Musik, Abt. Mittelalter; Bd. 80–3 (Kassel, 1987–96), i, p. 184; iv, pp. 366–7. The date of the gathering with O Venus bant has also been confirmed in the study by Joshua Rifkin, even if he collects arguments to postpone the copying of Josquin’s Ave Maria. See J. Rifkin, ‘Munich, Milan, and a Marian Motet: Dating Josquin’s Ave Maria … Virgo Serena’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 56 (2003), pp. 239–350, at pp. 240–1.

⁶² See Des Prez, Secular Works for Three Voices, ed. Van Benthem and Brown, Critical apparatus, pp. 188–99. The song was published in Hamonice musices Odhecaton A (Venice: Ottaviano Petrucci 1501), fols. 84^v–85 under Josquin’s name (see the edition in Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, ed. H. Hewitt (New York, 1978), pp. 383–4); it is also present in Sankt Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 463, no. 48, S only, with incipit (designation ‘Mixolydius i[dest] septimus’ and ascription to Josquin); an intabulation by Francesco Spinacino is included in Intabolatura de lauto libro primo (Venice: Ottaviano Petrucci, 1507), fol. 27^r–v.

⁶³ On the transmission of the chanson and the problem of authorship, cf. Des Prez, Secular Works for Three Voices, ed. Van Benthem, pp. 196–7.

⁶⁴ I refer here to the setting of the Casanatense manuscript. See n. 56.

⁶⁵ It would be thinkable that the spread of the melody in Florence and Isaac’s use of it was connected to the Flemish confraternity of St Barbara, in which Isaac was active. The Italian sources of O Venus bant settings are generally not provided with text, and mostly written for instrumental parts. Cf. Taruskin, O Venus bant: Ten Settings in Three and Four Parts. For the O Venus bant in the manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magl. XIX.121, fols. 13^v–14^r, see Bonnie J. Blackburn, ‘Variations on Agricola’s Si Dedero: A Motet Cycle Unmasked’, in Daniele Filippi and Agnese Pavanello (eds.), Codici per cantare: I libroni di Gaffurio nella Milano sforzesca (Lucca, 2019), pp. 187–217, at p. 117.

⁶⁶ See the newest biographical information in R. C. Wegman et al., ‘Agricola, Alexander’, Grove Music Online (accessed 16 Oct. 2016). Even if there is no document to connect Agricola with Milan (he cannot be identified, it seems, with Alessandro Alemanno or d’Alemagna, as previously thought; see Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, pp. 60–2), and new documents testify that he was in Cambrai in 1476, his presence in Italy before this date and in the late 1470s cannot be ruled out, since he is untraceable elsewhere. On Agricola in Cambrai, see J. Rifkin, Alexander Agricola and Cambrai: A Postscript’, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 54 (2004), pp. 23–30. Bonnie Blackburn has recently found that Agricola is documented in Hungary in 1486, and possibly passed through Ferrara before or after his time there, which might explain his considerable presence in the Casanatense chansonnier, copied in Ferrara (pers. comm.).

⁶⁷ See http://chansonmelodies.sbg.ac.at/db/welcome.php (accessed 16 July 2017). The mention of the melody is to be found in the Proportionale musices (Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, MS II 4147), Lib. III, ch. IV, §7. Concerning Johannes Tinctoris’ theoretical and musical works, see Ronald Woodley’s website, containing the complete catalogue of Tinctoris’s opus with bibliographical references: http://www.stoa.org/tinctoris/ (this website will be completely transferred to http://earlymusictheory.org/. (Both websites accessed 2 Sept. 2017.)

⁶⁸ The letter is cited in A. Erhard, Bedynghams O rosa bella und seine Cantus-firmus Bearbeitungen in Cantilena-Form, Tübinger Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 31 (Tutzing, 2010), pp. 215–16, and also in Merkley and Merkley, Music and Patronage, p. 36, n. 7.

⁶⁹ E. E. Lowinsky, ‘Ascanio Sforza’s Life: A Key to Josquin’s Biography and an Aid to the Chronology of his Works’, in E. E. Lowinsky in collaboration with B. J. Blackburn (eds.),Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference Held at The Juillard School at Lincoln Center in New York City, 21–25 June 1971 (London, 1976), pp. 1–75, at p. 64.

⁷⁰ In a study of O Rosa bella reworkings, Erhard suggests that Antonio Guinati may be the author of He Robinet super O rosa bella which Johannes Tinctoris in turn reworked in his quodlibet. See Erhard, Bedynghams O rosa bella, pp. 215–16.

⁷¹ See Proportionale musices. Liber de arte contrapuncti, ed. and trans. G. D’Agostino (Florence, 2008), pp. lxxxi and 86–7.

⁷² As mentioned, in monophonic Dutch sources a different variant of the O Venus bant melody is to be found. Fiedler speculated that this later melody might indeed be younger in its autonomous use, since the melody of Weerbeke’s tenor is the one most widely circulated and elaborated in the earliest sources, which are, as already observed, polyphonic. See Fiedler, Die Messen, p. 46.

⁷³ For instance, defined as ‘popular melody with a Dutch text’ in the New Josquin Edition, vol. 27, no. 29, p. 194.

⁷⁴ The earliest known sources are the manuscripts from the Universitätsbibliothek Amsterdam, MS 1 A 24n of the second half of the fifteenth century, and from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, germ. Oct. 190 (of Dutch provenance; probably from Utrecht or surroundings c. 1480). See Het liederenhandschrift Berlijn 190, ed. T. Mertens and E. Dieuwke E. van der Poel (Hilversum, 2013), pp. 477, 519.

⁷⁵ Planchart, ‘The Origin and History’, pp. 311–12.

⁷⁶ It is intriguing that the character of Venus should appear in the festive theatrical performances held on the occasion of the wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York. See Johan Huizinga, Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen, in Huizinga, Verzamelde Werken, ed. L. Brummel (Haarlem, 1949), p. 382; available online at http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huiz003herf01_01/ (accessed 16 July 2017). In the groups dedicated to the exercise of rhetoric (rhetoricians), which had their own names, there were also renowned writers and poets, such as, for example, Anthonis de Roovere from Bruges (c. 1430 to 1482). As Jaap van Benthem has kindly informed me, contrafacta of a sacred character would also have to be traced back to the same environment. On de Roovere in Bruges and in the area, see A. Brown, Civic Ceremony and Religion in Medieval Bruges, c.1300–1520 (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 180–1. De Roovere was the main rhetorician paid regularly by the city for supervising the staging of entries in Bruges between 1462 and 1477, where Charles the Bold held court more frequently than his predecessors, and where his wedding was celebrated (ibid., p. 240).