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‘MUCH TO DELIVER IN YOUR HONOUR'S EAR’: ANGELO NOTARI’S WORK IN INTELLIGENCE, 1616–1623

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

Alana Mailes
Alana Mailes*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

It has long been surmised that the Paduan singer, lutenist and composer Angelo Notari (1566–1663) was employed as a spy after immigrating to England circa 1610. In examining Venetian counterintelligence papers previously neglected by musicologists, I here confirm that Notari was indeed an intelligencer. More specifically, he was a paid informant for the Venetian State Inquisitors between 1616 and 1619 and participated in a contentious international trial concerning the Venetian ambassador to England, Antonio Foscarini. I argue that Notari's work as a musician was inextricable from his identity as an intelligencer and former Venetian citizen and demonstrate that Italian musicians in Jacobean London significantly influenced international diplomatic relations. By identifying intersections between the two highly social practices of music-making and intelligence-gathering, I encourage greater musicological attention to political networks that transmitted music across borders and, conversely, musical networks that transmitted political intelligence. I thus situate seventeenth-century musical transculturation within its broader diplomatic, confessional and economic contexts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 39 , October 2020 , pp. 219 - 252
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© Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

I am grateful to the Villa I Tatti, the Fulbright Program, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, the Renaissance Society of America and the Ferdinand Gordon and Elizabeth Hunter Morrill Graduate Fellowship (Harvard University Department of Music) for supporting this research. Thank you to Kate van Orden, Emily Dolan, Kay Kaufman Shelemay and Diego Pirillo for their guidance on this project. Many thanks to my colleagues at Harvard, I Tatti, the Sapienza and the American Academy for their insights. I am likewise indebted to Federica Ambrosini, Rosa Apostolico, Federico Barbierato, Samuel Cohn, Ross Duffin, Iain Fenlon, Catherine Ferrari, Giuseppe Gullino, Ioanna Iordanou, Franco Piperno, Claudia Terribile and Pier Mario Vescovo.

References

1 ‘[S]iamo tutti giuro à Dio buoni Venitiani …’. Wotton said this about himself and his embassy staff. Vicenzo Gussoni to the Doge and Senate, 20 May 1612, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Senato, Dispacci degli ambasciatori e residenti, Savoia, Filza 35; Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice (henceforth CSPV), 12 (London, 1905), ed. H. F. Brown, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/series/cal-state-papers--venice. Wotton also penned the phrase, ‘I have about that matter much to deliver in your Honour's Ear …’ in a 1592 letter to Edward la Zouche, Baron Zouche. Reliquiae Wottonianae: Or, a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems, with Characters of Sundry Personages, ed. I. Walton (London, 1685), p. 704.

2 See ‘Angelo Notari: Musician for the Crown and Spy for Spain?’ below for a review of scholarship on Notari's life and music.

3 ‘Angelo Nodari, un musico di Padova raccomandato dagli Inquisitori come “volonteroso assai a prestar buoni servitii” ma in effetti povero, ingegnoso e troppo amico dell’ambasciatore spagnolo …’. P. Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia: Spionaggio e controspionaggio ai tempi della Serenissima (1994; Milan, 2010), p. 201. Antonio Donato to the Inquisitors of State, 10 December 1618 (deciphered copy), ASV, Inquisitori di Stato, Busta 442; CSPV, 15 (1909), ed. A. B. Hinds. Anna Loredana Zorzi Zacchia-Rondinini's narration of the Foscarini–Muscorno case summarises ‘Nodari's’ work as a paid informant in the Robbazzi trial A. L. Z. Zacchia-Rondinini, L’ambasciatore Antonio Foscarini (Rome, 1941), pp. 103–6. See also N. Barozzi and G. Berchet, Relazioni degli stati europei lette al senato dagli ambasciatori venetiani nel secolo decimosettimo, Series 2, I (Venice), pp. 407–8; CSPV, 14 (1908), ed. A. B. Hinds; the Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle, ‘Instituciones de Venecia: Concejo de los Diez’, Revista de España, 33, no. 130 (1873), pp. 163–94, at p. 183; and F. P. Raimondi, Giulio Cesare Vanini nell’Europa del Seicento (Pisa, 2005), pp. 233–5.

4 For secondary literature on the Foscarini–Muscorno case, see M. Brown, ‘The Myth of Antonio Foscarini's Exoneration’, Renaissance and Reformation, 25, no. 3 (2001), pp. 25–42; CSPV, 12–14, ed. H. F. Brown and A. B. Hinds (1905–9); R. Canosa Alle origini delle polizie politiche: Gli inquisitori di stato a Venezia e a Genova (Milan, 1989), pp. 85–97; G. S. Gargàno, Scapigliatura italiana a Londra sotto Elisabetta e Giacomo I (Florence, 1923), pp. 105–32; C. Page, The Guitar in Stuart England: A Social and Musical History (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 22–3; Raimondi, Giulio Cesare Vanini, pp. 233–5; S. Secchi, Antonio Foscarini: Un patrizio veneziano del ’600 (Florence, 1969); J. Walker, ‘Antonio Foscarini in the City of Crossed Destinies’, in A. Munslow and R. A. Rosenstone (eds.), Experiments in Rethinking History (New York, 2004), pp. 124–55 and Pistols! Treason! Murder! The Rise and Fall of a Master Spy (Melbourne, 2007); Zacchia-Rondinini, L’ambasciatore Antonio Foscarini; and R. Zargo, ‘Foscarini, Antonio’ in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, 49 (1997), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-foscarini_(Dizionario-Biografico)/.

5 I provide my own transcriptions and translations of the original sources but also cite those printed in volumes 12–15 of the CSPV. As these papers document covert operations, the majority are in cipher. I transcribe either seventeenth-century decoded copies or my own decryptions. In the case of the latter, I include the original passages in cipher, which I decoded using Hinds's key published in volume 13 of the CSPV. I also draw on English state papers in The National Archives.

6 In the most thorough study on this subject to date, Rachelle Taylor has detailed the intricate espionage activities of Nicholas Lanier, Cormack MacDermott, Thomas Morley and Peter Philips, arguing that intelligence work in the late Tudor and early Stuart years emerged as an alternative form of patronage for musicians in England. R. A. M. Chiasson-Taylor, ‘Musicians and Intelligence Operations, 1570–1612: Politics, Surveillance, and Patronage in the Late Tudor and Early Stuart Years’ (Ph.D. diss., McGill University, 2006) and ‘Peter Philips (1560/1561–1628) and the Venerable English College, Rome’, in B. Bouckaert and E. Schreurs (eds.), The Di Martinelli Music Collection (KULeuven, University Archives): Musical Life in Collegiate Churches in the Low Countries and Europe: Chant and Polyphony (Leuven, 2000), pp. 243–60.

7 The first musicologist to extensively discuss an early modern musician-intelligencer was Richard Charteris, in an article on Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder. Others who have examined the covert political dealings of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century musicians include Kristine Forney on Tielman Susato, Peter Hauge on John Dowland and Craig Monson on the Ferraboscos. Focusing instead on music's relationship to aristocratic spymasters, Lynn Hulse has studied Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, as an influential patron of musicians such as MacDermott, Lanier, John Coprario, Robert Hales and Joseph Sherley. R. Charteris, ‘New Information about the Life of Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (1543–1588)’, Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 17 (1981), pp. 97–114; K. K. Forney, ‘A Gift of Madrigals and Chansons: The Winchester Part Books and the Courtship of Elizabeth I by Erik XIV of Sweden’, Journal of Musicology, 17 (1999), pp. 50–75; P. Hauge, ‘Dowland and his Time in Copenhagen, 1598–160’, Early Music, 41 (2013), pp. 189–203 and ‘John Dowland's Employment at the Royal Danish Court: Musician, Agent – and Spy?’, in M. Keblusek and B. V. Noldus (eds.), Double Agents: Cultural and Political Brokerage in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2011), pp. 193–212; L. Hulse, ‘The Musical Patronage of Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury (1563–1612)’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association 116 (1991), pp. 24–40; L. Hulse, ‘“Musique which pleaseth myne eare”: Robert Cecil's Musical Patronage’, in P. Croft (ed.), Patronage, Culture and Power: The Early Cecils (New Haven, 2002), pp. 139–58; C. Monson, ‘The Composer as “Spy”: The Ferraboscoes, Gabriele Paleotti, and the Inquisition’, Music & Letters, 84 (2003), pp. 1–18; and Chiasson-Taylor, ‘Musicians and Intelligence Operations’, pp. 37–8.

8 My Ph.D. dissertation discusses Wotton's musical pursuits and other aspects of musical life at the English embassy in Venice circa 1604–23: ‘Musica Transalpina: English Musicians in the Italian Peninsula, c.1580–1660’ (Harvard University, forthcoming).

9 For the new diplomatic history, see R. Adams and R. Cox (eds.), Diplomacy and Early Modern Culture (New York, 2011); Keblusek and Noldus (eds.), Double Agents; H. Cools etal. (eds.), Your Humble Servant: Agents in Early Modern Europe (Hilversum, 2006); C. Fletcher and J. M. DeSilva, ‘Italian Ambassadorial Networks in Early Modern Europe: An Introduction’, Journal of Early Modern History, 4 (2010), pp. 505–12; I. Lazzarini, ‘Storia della diplomazia e International Relation studies fra pre- e post-moderno’, Storica, 65 (2016), pp. 9–41; D. Frigo (ed.), Politics and Diplomacy in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 1–24; T. A. Sowerby and J. Hennings (eds.), Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World, c.1410–1800 (London, 2017); R. Sabbatini and P. Volpini (eds.), Sulla diplomazia in età moderna: Politica, economia, religione (Milan, 2011); J. Watkins, ‘Toward a New Diplomatic History of Medieval and Early Modern Europe’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 38 (2008), pp. 1–14; D. Pirillo, The Refugee-Diplomat: Venice, England, and the Reformation (Ithaca, NY, 2018); B. Charry and G. Shahani (eds.), Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Mediation, Transmission, Traffic, 1550–1700 (London, 2016); and T. Hampton, Fictions of Embassy: Literature and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe (Ithaca, NY, 2009). For musical contributions to the new diplomatic history, see F. Ramel and C. Prévost-Thomas (eds.), International Relations, Music and Diplomacy (Cham, 2018) and R. Ahrendt etal. (eds.), Music and Diplomacy from the Early Modern Era to the Present (New York, 2014).

10 I. Iordanou, ‘The Spy Chiefs of Renaissance Venice: Intelligence Leadership in the Early Modern World’, in P. Maddrell etal. (eds.), Spy Chiefs, ii: Intelligence Leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (Washington, DC, 2018), pp. 43–66 and I. Iordanou, ‘What News on the Rialto? The Trade of Information and Early Modern Venice's Centralized Intelligence Organization’, Intelligence and National Security, 31 (2016), pp. 305–26. See now too her Venice's Secret Service: Organizing Intelligence in the Renaissance (Oxford, 2019). For studies on the State Inquisitors, see Canosa as well as S. Romanin, Gli Inquisitori di Stato di Venezia (Venice, 1858), and F. de Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern Politics (Oxford, 2007).

11 Iordanou, ‘The Spy Chiefs of Renaissance Venice’ and ‘What News on the Rialto?’.

12 Ibid.

13 Notari's date of birth is disputed. He may have been born in 1573. See A. Ashbee etal., ‘Notari Angelo (1566–1663). Lute, 1610–1663’, in A Biographical Dictionary of English Court Musicians, 1485--1714, ii (Aldershot, 1998), pp. 839–42; C. Egerton, ‘The Horoscope of Signor Angelo Notari (1566–1663)’, Lute Society Journal, 28 (1988), pp. 13–18; S. M. Henson, ‘Foreign Songs for Foreign Kings: The Manuscript Scorebook of Angelo Notari’ (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 2012), pp. 16–17, 108–9; and I. Spink, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove’, Monthly Musical Record, 87 (1957), pp. 168–77, at pp. 169–70, Spink, ‘Notari, Angelo’, in Grove Music Online (2001), Oxford Music Online, https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20112 and Spink, ‘Notari, Angelo (1566–1663), Composer’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1093/ref:odnb/67970.

14 Ashbee etal., ‘Notari Angelo (1566–1663)’, pp. 839–40; Henson, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove of 1613’ (MM diss., Florida State University, 2008), pp. 7–8 and Henson, ‘Foreign Songs for Foreign Kings’, p.17; Spink, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove’, pp. 170–1.

15 In 1957 Ian Spink published the first major study on Notari and his compositional work, and in 2008 Stanley Matthew Henson produced the first modern critical edition of Prime musiche nuove. S. Boorman, ‘Notari, Porter, and the Lute’, Lute Society Journal, 13 (1971), pp. 28–35; Henson, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove of 1613’, pp. 38–9; P. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540–1690 (Oxford, 1993), p. 203; A. Notari, Prime musiche nuove (London, 1613); Spink, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove’, pp. 168–77, ‘Notari, Angelo’ and ‘Notari, Angelo (1566–1663), Composer’.

16 Ashbee etal., ‘Notari Angelo (1566–1663)’; Henson, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove of 1613’, pp. 8, 27; Spink, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove’, pp. 171–3, ‘Notari, Angelo’ and ‘Notari, Angelo (1566–1663), Composer’; J. A. Westrup, ‘Foreign Musicians in Stuart England’, Musical Quarterly, 27 (1941), pp. 70–89.

17 Also written in Italian, more accurately: ‘Perche la Cànzonetta Spagnuola, che mi capitò alle mani composta à due voci, mi parve assai vaga, io le aggiunsi per mio gusto la terza parte, alterando però in qualche parte quella del basso secondo …’. Notari, Prime musiche nuove.

18 Ashbee etal., ‘Notari Angelo (1566–1663)’; Henson, ‘Foreign Songs for Foreign Kings’, pp. 18–19, 97; Spink, ‘Angelo Notari and his Prime Musiche Nuove’, pp. 171–4, ‘Notari, Angelo’ and ‘Notari, Angelo (1566–1663), Composer’.

19 Henson, ‘Foreign Songs for Foreign Kings’; Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers, pp. 200–11; Spink, ‘Notari, Angelo’ and ‘Notari, Angelo (1566–1663), Composer’; J. P. Wainwright, Musical Patronage in Seventeenth-Century England: Christopher, First Baron Hatton (1605–1670) (Aldershot, 1997), pp. 98, 162–5, 191–4 and 244–51, and Wainwright, ‘Richard Dering's Few-Voice “Concertato” Motets’, Music & Letters, 89 (2008), pp. 165–94; P. J. Willetts, ‘A Neglected Source of Monody and Madrigal’, Music & Letters, 43 (1962), pp. 329–39 and Willetts, ‘Autographs of Angelo Notari’, Music & Letters, 50 (1969), pp. 124–6.

20 E.g. Donato to the Inquisitors of State, 10 December 1618 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 15.

21 Examination of Notari, 22 February 1616, examination of Lunardo Michielini, 23 February 1616 and examination of Michielini, 25 April 1617, ASV, Inquisitori di Stato, Busta 155. The only evidence I have found of Notari's employment in Foscarini's household is the claim that Notari was eventually let go. See n. 47 below.

22 The only evidence I have found that Muscorno played the lute comes from an examination of Matthio Bonhomo, stating that Muscorno had ‘played the lute at court’ (‘sonato di liuto alla Corte’). Examination of Matthio Bonhomo, 22 October 1615, Busta 155; Dudley Carleton to Ralph Winwood, 3 February 1615, State Papers 99/19, fol. 12r, National Archives, London, State Papers Online: Early Modern Government in Britain and Europe, https://www.gale.com/intl/primary-sources/state-papers-online; examination of François de La Forêt, 22 October 1615, Busta 155; Carleton to the Collegio, 25 February 1613, Carleton to the Collegio, 14 February 1615, Giovanni Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 28 May 1616 and prefaces in CSPV, 12–14.

23 Page, The Guitar in Stuart England, pp. 22–3.

24 ‘é [sic] in questa Corte per le sue rare qualità stimato assai, da questi in particolare, li quali amano le Muse’. Giovanni Francesco Biondi to Carleton, 14 January 1613, State Papers 14/72, fol. 18v, The National Archives.

25 ‘nella quale valeva piu di alcun di questo Regno; el crede del mondo …’. Barbarigo to the Inquisitors of State, 28 May 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

26 ‘o76 c17 o45 r20 c1 c15 c2 o45 o61 o29 o86 r20 o77 o20 o21 o86 r21 o29 o61 o82 o32 c31 o4 o61 c33 r21 c6 c2 o61 c17 o36 o63 r6 c2 o45 o3 o84 o76 c2 o31 o43 o83 o2 o29 c3 o88 o76 r19 r6 o23 r26 c16 o45 o62…o67 o76 o28 o21 o62 r6 o26 o81 c6 o61 o82 o16 c38 …’ ‘con molte dame della corte et in particolare hebbe la gratia della moglie del Baron de Hai, ricco di trenta e piu mille … dama prencipale e cara a la Regina …’. Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 18 June 1615 (deciphered), Busta 442; CSPV, 13 (1907), ed. A. B. Hinds.

27 CSPV, 13, preface.

28 Ibid; Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 4 September 1615, CSPV, 13.

29 Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 18 June 1615, CSPV, 13.

30 The servant in question was probably the queen's valet and musician Giovanni Maria Lugaro (see below). ‘o2 o82 c2 o73 o23 r26 r22 r10 c57 o45 r26 c28 r21 o59 c26 r21 o29 o76 o87 o45 c50 c6 c43 o20 r7 o76 r21 c6 c2 o45 o1 c1 c14 c1 c14 c3 o31 o59 … c17 o96 o93 o72 o84 o45 c6 c40 c17 c2 o45 o61 o82 o16 c38 c6 o83 o74 o65 r21 o37 c3 o20 o90 c5 o86 o43 o45 o1 r12 c27 o27 o23 r26 o98 o45 r20 c6 o74 c38 o82 r6 o26 o76 r19 o82 c6 o95 o76 r21 c3 o62o59 o29 o76 o47 o74 c3 o93 c26 r21 o37 o77 c6 c39 o14 o86 o45 c6 r26 c3 r6 o76 o80 c6 c6 o45 c50 c3 c57 o76 c6 o21 o82 c14 c40 c27 r10 o72 c11 c57 c17 o86 r19 c14 c1 c14 c2 o31 o59 o31 c6 c43 c15 o93 o74 o47 o78 o45 o73 c11 o86 c50 o72 o60 o67 c57 o45 o31 o83 o27 o86 o26 r22 …’ ‘[C]redesi piutosto che l’ufitii fati contra l’ambasciator ad instantia del segretario da Madama di Hai … movessero l’animo della Regina a risolutione di introdur il segretario come fece piu volte a sonare e cantare avanti di lei con sue sodisfatione et a negar l’audienza a l’ambasciatore di che n’apare manifesto segno che morta Madama de Hai ha admesso sue Maestà ’l Signor Ambasciatore sempre che l’ha ricercato …’. Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 25 June 1615 (deciphered), Busta 442; CSPV, 13.

31 In one rare un-encrypted letter to Bartolomeo Comino, secretary of the Ten, Rizzardo listed a series of letters that had been written to a certain ‘Lutiato’ in June and July 1615. Since all of the letters in this list share the same dates as Rizzardo's encrypted dispatches to the State Inquisitors, it appears that the name ‘Lutiato’ was either an alias for the State Inquisitors or the name of an intermediary who delivered Rizzardo's letters to them. Rizzardo probably sought confirmation that the State Inquisitors had received his dispatches but could not request a direct response from them as it would have raised Foscarini's suspicions. Foscarini was purportedly nosy when it came to other people's confidential correspondences. He was accused of intercepting and opening the king's letters to the Duke of York. This perhaps explains why I was unable to determine the identity of the mysterious ‘Lutiato’. In any case, the word may refer to a person of low social rank with a name or nickname of Paduan origin. In early modern Paduan, the term ‘luzzato/luzato’ derived from the word ‘luzzo/luccio’ (‘pike’) and so may have been used in an ironic sense. Thank you to Federica Ambrosini, Giuseppe Gullino, Claudia Terribile and Pier Mario Vescovo for suggesting these possibilities. Rizzardo to Bartolomeo Comino, 5 August 1615, Busta 442; articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14; I. Paccagnella, Vocabolario del pavano: XIV–XVII secolo (Padua, 2012), p. 392. Foscarini to the Council of Ten, 18 September 1614, Council of Ten, 27 March 1615 and 13 August 1615, Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 6 November 1615 and prefaces in CSPV, 13–14.

32 Foscarini to the Doge and Senate, 13 August 1615, Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 26 December 1615 and prefaces in CSPV, 13–14.

33 Table no. 2, CSPV, 1 (1864), ed. R. Brown; Council of Ten, 21 May 1616, CSPV, 14.

34 CSPV, prefaces, 14–15.

35 ‘Mi disse già il Sr. Angelo Nodari, ch’era stato tradotto in Francese, et in Inglese, et che haveva havuto una copia di esso per portarla à Venetia il Clmo. Sr. Luca tron, et che si doveva farlo stampare à Franifort, et n’era andata copià anco in Spagna.’ Barbarigo to the Inquisitors of State, 7 January 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

36 Inquisitors of State to Barbarigo, 22 January 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

37 Articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, Busta 155; Piero Contarini to the Inquisitors of State, 26 September 1615, CSPV, 14.

38 ‘et con un Buffone presso di lui, & Sonava una chitara, et lo faceva cantar ad alta voce; et che li figliuoli gli andavano dietro’, trans. Page. Articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616 and examination of Michielini, 24 February 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14; Page, The Guitar, pp. 22–3.

39 ‘che dipendeva da quel Sre. ove si andava alla visità, che voleva ben cantar, et sonar …’. Articles in defence of Foscarini and examination of Michielini, 24 February 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

40 Articles in defence of Foscarini, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

41 ‘s’introdusse in quella [casa] della Regina per via del cantar et sonar con le Dame …’. Examination of Michielini, 7 May 1616, Busta 155.

42 Examination of Robert Sidney, 16 June 1617, Busta 155.

43 Articles in defence of Foscarini, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

44 ‘mendicando, e procurando presenti da diversi dove haveva cantato, et fatto buffonarie …’. Articles in defence of Foscarini, Busta 155.

45 Articles in defence of Foscarini, articles of accusation against Muscorno, examination of Bonhomo, 22 October 1615, examination of Odoardo Guaz, 18 April 1617, Busta 155; Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 30 October 1615, Busta 442; CSPV, 14; Page, The Guitar, p. 22.

46 ‘Muscorno sia andato à cantare in chiese de Protestanti unitamente con ministri protestanti la musica dell’officio, secondo l’uso Anglicano. Stando senza capello, et havendo un libro inanzi di lui in presentia di tutto ’l popolo.’ Articles in defence of Foscarini, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

47 Guaz reported that Notari had been expelled from Foscarini's home but he could not remember why. Articles in defence of Foscarini, examination of Michielini, 10 November 1615, examination of Guaz, 18 April 1617 and examination of Michielini, 25 April 1617, Busta 155.

48 S. K. Cohn, Jr, ‘Plague Spreaders’, in his Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS (Oxford, 2018), pp. 127–60.

49 ‘Il Palatino’. This could have referred to Frederick V of the Palatinate, whose wife was Elizabeth Stuart, James I's daughter. Other reports, however, allege that Foscarini had given the sobriquet to James I.

50 ‘maggior di lui in tutti i conti …’. Examination of Notari, 22 February 1616 and articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

51 Examination of Notari, 5 May 1616, Busta 155.

52 Articles in defence of Foscarini and examination of Notari, 30 April 1617, Busta 155.

53 E. K. Chambers, ‘Elizabethan Stage Gleanings’, Review of English Studies, 1 (1925), pp. 182–6, at p. 186; J. Orrell, ‘The London Stage in the Florentine Correspondence, 1604–1618’, Theatre Research International, 3 (1978), pp. 157–76, at p. 171.

54 Examinations of Notari, 22 February and 5 May 1616, Busta 155.

55 Lugaro sang and played the chitarrone, spinet, harp and ‘viola’. R. Bowers, ‘Monteverdi at Mantua, 1590–1612’, in J. Whenham and R. Wistreich (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 53–75, at p. 62.

56 Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 24 September 1615, Busta 442 and Barbarigo to the Inquisitors of State, 16 January 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

57 Articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

58 Council of Ten, 16 February 1617, CSPV, 14.

59 Examination of Lugaro, 23 February 1616, Busta 155.

60 ‘Publiche’, ‘Meretrice’, ‘Conduttrice’. Articles in defence of Foscarini, examination of Guaz, 23 February 1616, examination of Antonio de Michiel, 14 March 1616, examination of Guaz, 18 April 1617 and examination of Lugaro, examinations of Federico Federici, 17 May 1616 and 22 May 1617, Busta 155; CSPV, 14.

61 Guaz could not recall whether Lugaro had been present, since Foscarini had irately ejected Guaz from his chamber that night for acquiescing to one woman's request that she be brought wine mixed with beer. Articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, examination of Guaz, 23 February 1616, examination of de Michiel, 14 March 1616, examination of Federici, 17 May 1616 and examination of Lugaro, 22 May 1617, Busta 155.

62 Articles of accusation against Foscarini, 1616, Busta 155.

63 Most examinations of women are on the shorter side and pertain to Muscorno's popularity at court, e.g. examination of Catherine Windsor, 4 June 1617, and examination of Alethea Howard, 19 June 1617, Busta 155.

64 ‘Un’angelo Nodari Padovano Musico, che si ritrova in questa Città mi parlò già 6. giorni, che si ritrovavano in mano dell’ambr. di Spagna, et del Cavr. Smith molte lettere scritte dall’Illmo. Sr. Cavr. Foscni: all’Eccmo. Senato, et perche per dir il vero questo soggetto mi é in concetto di poco buona natura, et che sià inimico cosi dell Illmo. Foscni:, come del Secrio. Muscorno, imaginandomi che questa fosse qualche macchinatione per pregiudicar ad alcuno di essi, gli mettai poco credenza, et solo gli dissi, che procurasse di farmene veder qualche d’una per conoscer da qual mano fossero scritte, ò me ne apportasse qualche altra chiarezza, et cosi egli mi promise di fare.’ Giovanni Battista Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 24 June 1616, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

65 Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 15 July 1616 (deciphered copy), ASV, Inquisitori di Stato, Busta 156; CSPV, 14.

66 Rizzardo to the Inquisitors of State, 9 October 1615 and Barbarigo to the Inquisitors of State, 28 May 1616, CSPV, 14.

67 CSPV, preface, 14.

68 ‘che scriveva bene, come poteva vedere dalle copie delle sue lettere publiche, che teneva appresso di se, comprate à gran denaro’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 24 June 1616, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

69 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 24 June 1616, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

70 Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 15 July 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; CSPV, 14.

71 ‘perche scoprendosi sarebbe la sua ruvina …’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 1 July 1616 and 5 August 1616 (deciphered copies), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

72 ‘offerendosi di portar molti lumi alli ambri., che di tempo in tempo saranno qui delle cose importanti della Corte, et delle più recondite, poiche pratticando molto strettamente per le Case de grandi, et ambri., potrebbe veramente far molti servicij, et peró vorrebbe esser per tale conosciuto dalli Ambri. che qui verranno, et riconosciuto con qualche annua pensione dall’EE.VV …’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 1 July 1616, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

73 Donato's arrival in England would be significantly delayed. Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 21 July 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; and preface in CSPV, 14.

74 Inquisitors of State, 28 July 1616 and Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 29 July 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; CSPV, 14.

75 ‘Quanto alla ricognitione del Nodari, credo che egli habbia fatto tutto quello, che si può da lui aspettare senza che io sia divenuto ad alcuna particolar promessa; onde spero, che con cinquanta ducati resterá sodisfatto …’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 5 and 13 August 1616 (deciphered copies), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

76 According to the National Archives currency converter, Notari received what would have been approximately £1,600 in 2017. In 1620 this amounted to about 240 days of wages for a skilled tradesman in London. Currency Converter: 1270–2017, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter, accessed 19 February 2020.

77 Council of Ten, 17 August 1616, CSPV, 14.

78 Council of Ten, 26 August 1616, CSPV, 14.

79 Council of Ten, 22 and 26 August 1616, CSPV, 14.

80 Council of Ten, 7 September 1616, ASV, Consiglio di dieci, Deliberazioni, Criminali, Filza 43 and Registro 33; CSPV, 14.

81 Council of Ten, 16 February 1617, CSPV, 14.

82 M. Fusaro, Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England, 1450–1700 (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 163–5.

83 Many thanks to Ioanna Iordanou for suggesting that Robbazzi might have been pardoned for these reasons. See Iordanou, ‘The Spy Chiefs of Renaissance Venice’ and ‘What News on the Rialto?’.

84 ‘Nella libraria publica di Osfort’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 26 August and 9 September 1616 (deciphered copies), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

85 ‘Hò parlato col Nodari, et fattolo restar contento di cinquanta ducati per la sua opera; spesa in questo negocio, aggiongendoli, che l’Eccmo. Sr. Ambr. Donato desidera haverà ordine di tenir conto della sua persona, et che ogni servitio, che uscirà da lui ad utile de negocij publici, sarà sempre stimato, et riconosciuto, come si conviene … [S]i mi è dechiarito di volerLe sempre fedelmente servire, come è debito di buon suddito; et che si contenterà di qual si sia segno della ’loro gratia, rimettendosi in tutto, et per tutto alla loro volontà; et dicendomi che spera di haver commodità di mostrare ’l suo devoto affetto in qualche cosa di momento, poiche di già resta ascritto per servitore del Principe d’Inghilterra nella nova formation della sua Corte…’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 16 September 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

86 Notari, receipt of payment, 7 November 1616, Busta 155. De La Forêt's receipt for 100 ducats is on the preceding page. For an analysis of Notari's handwriting, see Henson, ‘Foreign Songs for Foreign Kings’, pp. 25–44.

87 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 16 September 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

88 ‘Faremo à suo tempo con l’ Illmo. Ambr. Donado l’officio in proposito del Nodari ch’egli med.mo con sua gran sodisfattione anderà conoscendo secondo che anderanno meritando le sue operationi.’ Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 7 October 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; CSPV, 14.

89 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 17 November 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

90 ‘col restante della sua robba, et con la vita istessa’. Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 17 November 1616 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

91 Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 3 March 1617 and 17 March 1617, Busta 156 (deciphered copies); CSPV, 14.

92 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 30 March 1617 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

93 Inquisitors of State to Lionello, 31 March 1617 and 14 April 1617, Busta 156 (deciphered copies); CSPV, 14.

94 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 28 April 1617, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

95 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 11 May 1617, Busta 442; CSPV, 14.

96 Lionello to the Inquisitors of State, 11 August 1617 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; Preface; CSPV, 14.

97 Council of Ten, 9 April 1618, CSPV, 15. ASV, Miscellanea Gregolin, Buste 4 and 5, holds several letters written by Muscorno's wife, Costanza, between 1611 and 1619. This correspondence might contain more information on her husband's musical pursuits and the trial.

98 Articles in defence of Foscarini, Busta 155; Council of Ten, 30 July and 8 August 1618 and prefaces; CSPV, 14–15.

99 ‘un Angelo Nodari Padoano Musico; questo per essersi ben maneggiato in negocio importante passato sono già due anni finiti, per il nostro Magistrato, oltre qualche ricognitione, che li fù usata, hebbe larga intentione, che sarebbe raccommandato à V.S. Illma. quando si trovasse alla sua pnte Legatione, alla quale fin’ d’all’hora era destinata; et li fù per nostre ordine detto dal Sr. Gio. Battista Lionello Secrio. ch’egli haverebbe conosciuto, essere da Noi stato compito à questo officio …’. Inquisitors of State to Donato, 21 September 1618 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; CSPV, 15.

100 Inquisitors of State to Donato, 21 September 1618 (deciphered copy), Busta 156; CSPV, 15.

101 ‘Obedendo à commandamenti dell’Ecce. Vostre Illme … hò conosciuto quell’Angelo Nodari Musico Padoano, che hebbe occasione di ben servire al Secrio. Lionello, et continua nella medesima dispositione verso gli altri publici Rappresentanti[.] Egli è persona di povera conditione, ma di molto ingegno, tiene famigliarità in casa de Ministri di Spagna, et sà valersi delle occasioni al suo profitto …’. Donato to the Inquisitors of State, 10 December 1618 (deciphered copy), Busta 442; CSPV, 15; Table no. 2, CSPV, 1.

102 CSPV, preface, 15.

103 Council of Ten, 19 June 1619 and preface, CSPV, 15.

104 Murray Brown has shown that Foscarini's formal exoneration was more a matter of the Ten's political strategy than any kind of heartfelt moral absolution. Brown, ‘The Myth of Antonio Foscarini's Exoneration’.

105 For Anglo-Venetian commerce on the early modern Mediterranean, see G. P. de Divitiis, English Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Italy, trans. S. Parkin (Cambridge, 1990); Fusaro, Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean; and C. Tazzara, The Free Port of Livorno and the Transformation of the Mediterranean World, 1574–1790 (Oxford, 2017).

106 According to Peter Holman, Notari was the only Italian-born composer active in Prince Henry's court. See Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers, pp. 200–24 on musicians employed in the households of Princes Henry and Charles.

107 Literature on this topic is vast. For a recent overview, see M. Marrapodi (ed.), The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo-Italian Renaissance Literature and Culture (Abingdon, 2019).

108 ‘I acknowledge the Italians the greatest Masters of Musick, but yet not all.’ H. Lawes, Ayres and Dialogues, for One, Two, and Three Voyces (London, 1653), preface.