Article contents
Elena Malvezzi's keyboard manuscript: a new sixteenth-century source*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2008
Extract
It is safe to say that the collections of the Museo Comunale Bardini, situated in Piazza dei Mozzi on the oltrarno in Florence, remain comparatively little known. The museum's vast store of paintings, sculpture, architectural ornament, rugs and tapestries, armour, bronzes, furniture and musical instruments all belonged to Stefano Bardini, the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collector and art dealer. Born in 1836 in the province of Arezzo, Bardini came to Florence to study painting at the Accademia delle Belle Arti. After the political turbulence of the 1860s, when Bardini fought with the Garibaldini, the young painter turned to restoration, connoisseurship and art dealing. By the age of forty-five he had established his reputation and an extraordinary personal collection. At the height of his career his patrons included the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilts, Isabella Gardiner and J. Pierpont Morgan. Many objects now in some of the world's best-known public collections passed through his hands.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990
References
1 The most recent discussions of Bardini and his collection are Scalia, F., Il Museo Bardini (Milan, 1984)Google Scholar, and Scalia, F., Museo Bardini le armi (Florence, 1984), which form the basis for this descriptionGoogle Scholar.
2 I should like to thank Dr Scalia for permitting me extended access to the Bardini music manuscript in the summer of 1987 and for her many other kindnesses.
3 The first folio of gathering 19 has been removed; a stub remains. The original folios 4 and 5 at the centre of that gathering have also been removed, leaving a tiny fragment in the crease, and resulting in the loss of the end of the seventy-third piece, Alcun non è, and the beginning of the seventy-fourth piece.
4 Fascicle 6 ends and fascicle 7 begins with chansons published by Moderne; fascicle 11 ends with Rore's Hellas comment, part 2 of En vos adieux, while fascicle 12 begins with En vos adieux: the scribe apparently managed to copy the two parts of the chanson in reverse order.
5 Fol. 8r of fascicle 1 is largely blank; fol. 8v of fascicle 1 and fols. 1–4rof fascicle 2, and fol. 8rof fascicle 2 and fols. 1–3r of fascicle 3, are also blank. In fascicle 19 fol. 1 has been removed and fol. 2r (counting the missing folio as 1) is blank. At the end of the manuscript, fols. 5v-8v of fascicle 21 are blank.
6 Mošin, V., Anchor Watermarks, Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae Historiam Illustrantia 13 (Amsterdam, 1973), pp. 17–18Google Scholar. The Bardini watermark is closest to nos. 383–4 (Fabriano, 1502), 387 (Zagorja, 1500–10) and 403 (Pozega, 1524). It is unlike any of the encircled anchors in Briquet, C. M., Les filigranes (2nd edn, Leipzig, 1923), i, nos. 464–72Google Scholar.
7 The Museo Bardini contains a number of other volumes whose bindings are quite elaborate, but whose contents are of lesser interest.
8 Silbiger, A., Italian Manuscript Sources of 17th Century Keyboard Music (Ann Arbor, 1980), p. 17Google Scholar, points out that of known keyboard manuscripts only the late manuscripts, Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS d.2358, and London, British Library, MS Add. 40080, have elegant bindings.
9 ‘Inventato poi il modello dei ricchi fogliami…esso fu ampiamente adottato, così da far subito riconoscere come bolognese ogni rilegatura similmente ornata.’ De Marinis, T., La legatura artistica in italia nei secoli xv e xvi, ii (Florence, 1960), p. 9Google Scholar.
10 ‘ricordata frà le principali d'Italia, per sangue illustre, per Huomini honorati, e per nobilissimi fatti in diversi tempi vsciti da loro’, Cronologia delle famiglie nobili di Bologna (Bologna, 1670), p. 490Google Scholar.
11 A version without lilies and label appeared on the bell dated 1484 of the public oratorio at Bell'Aria, near the villa of the Marchesi Malvezzi-Campeggi (see ASB, Archivio Malvezzi De Medici, libro 8). The same form of the coat-of-arms has also been inserted in the margin on fol. 103 of the copy of Sansovino's, FrancescoDelle origine et de fatti delle famiglie illustri d'Italia (Venice, 1609)Google Scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (catalogued ‘Q 1326’), beside the entry ‘Signori Malvezzi’. A version of the coat-of-arms with lilies but without the label appears in a large printed table of ‘Nomi, e Cognomi de' SENATORI BOLOGNESI, con il tempo de' loro possessi nd Senato’, for ‘Pirriteo Malvezzi Marchese, e caval. di S. Stef. Adi 1603’ (ASB, Archivio Malvezzi De Medici, Libro 1). The same print appears as a fold-out at the back of Dolfi, Cronologia.
12 Atti, o memorie degli uomini illustri in santità nati, o morti in Bologna, classe ii, vol. i (Bologna, 1773), p. 194Google Scholar. The coat-of-arms on the first page of BCB MS b2019 does not correspond to the seal of the convent, however. Only one example of the seal of the prioress of Sant' Agnese survives, on a document dated 1399 in the Fondo Sant'Agnese (Demaniale 12/5602). It shows a figure in flowing garb, apparently holding an animal in its arms, presumably a lamb: a typical representation of St Agnes.
13 ASB, Demaniale 25/5615, aa1286; Demaniale 26/5616, bb1315, bb1331, bb1345; Demaniale 27/5617, cc135, cc1361, cc1366, cc1382, cc1384, cc1397; Demaniale 28/5618, dd1403, dd1405, dd1420.
14 ASB, Demaniale 25/5615, aa1273 (dated 6 March 1523); Demaniale 29/5619, ee1496 (dated 20 December 1569). Another list dated 4 December 1557(ee1455) lists only the prioress, sub-prioress and seven members of the order.
15 Ricuperi beneficiari, fasc. 8. The same fascicle also contains another document from 1531 listing Suor Elena as well.
16 ASB, Notarili, Stiatici Alessandro seniore, filza 10 (1525–1527). One further appearance of Suor Elena's name occurs in ASB, Notarili, Notaio Bartolomeo Algardi, filza 11(1542–1543), no. 25, a document dated 27 November 1542. I should like to thank Oscar Mischiati for bringing this to my attention.
17 The additions to the lists of nuns in the notarial acts suggest that one or two girls joined the order every year. Had Elena Malvezzi made her profession much before 1526 there would probably have been other names below hers on the list from May 1526.
18 According to the standard history of the monastery of Sant'Agnese, Cambria, M. G., Il monastero domenicano di S. Agnese in Bologna (Bologna, 1973), p. 34Google Scholar, the term ‘Madre’ was reserved for members of the council of the convent. I should like to thank M. Giovanna Cambria for making a copy of her book available to me and for answering several questions about the history of her order.
19 BCB MS b921, p.133. Cambria was not aware of Carrati's transcripts, which very usefully complement her history of the convent of Sant'Agnese.
20 Ibid., pp. 149–56.
21 The San Domenico necrology lists ‘Mre S. Diana Felcini’, an obvious error, because there was no member of the order by that name.
22 Fornasini, G., Breve cenno storico genealogico intorno alla famiglia Malvezzi (Bologna, 1927), p. 87Google Scholar. Although this work is indispensable for a study of the Malvezzi family, Fornasini relies heavily upon a manuscript family history preserved in ASB, Archivio Malvezzi-Campeggi, serie 2a, busta 27/264, that contains numerous inaccuracies. A great many printing errors also crept into Fornasini's genealogical tables. Fornasini also mistakes the date of Elena Malvezzi's election as sub-prioress for her death date.
23 ASB, Studio Alidosi, no. 26, vacchetino no.293, p. 14. A similar list also appears in Studio Alidosi, pezzo ‘Famiglie M’, fascicolo ‘Malvezzi’.
24 ASB, Archivio Malvezzi De Medici, Busta 123f, fasc.f31. Unfortunately, no original copy of Lorenzo's will is to be found among the surviving documents of the notary Bartolomeo Scudieri, who had initially drafted it, though Alidosi reports having seen one in the seventeenth century. A document drafted the day after Lorenzo's will, 10 March 1528, still survives, in addition to a number of other Malvezzi documents. See ASB, Notarili, Scudieri Bartolomeo, pezzi 2–3.
25 Archivio Arcivescovile, Reg. Batt., vol. 1516–19, fol. 156; vol. 1524–8, fols. 3v and 226v; vol. 1510–15, fols. 86 and 459v, respectively. The names of all the Sons can also be found in the baptismal records. All entries are cited, more or less complete, in Fornasini, Breve cenno storico. It is an interesting coincidence that in October 1523 Lorenzo's youngest son, Lucio Cornelio, was held for baptism by ‘Sr ercule gunzaga da … Mantua’ (Reg. Batt. vol. 1523–4, fol. 134). The eighteen-year-old Bishop of Mantua, at the time enrolled at the studium in Bologna, was to become a major figure in musical patronage in Mantua. See Fenlon, I., Music and Patronage in Sixteenth- Century Mantua, i (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 47–78Google Scholar.
26 Cambria, , Il monastero domenicano, p. 32Google Scholar.
27 In Breve cenno storico Fornasini, presumably following the MS family genealogy (Archivio Malvezzi-Campeggi, serie 2a, 27/264, p. 49) incorrectly claims that the elder Camilla married Alessandro Crescenzi in 1530 (p. 87). The younger Camilla married Crescenzi in 1543. See Archivio Malvezzi De Medici, Libro 124g, fasc. g37 for her dowry contract, dated 20 November 1543.
28 A notice of her dowry contract dated 18 May 1509 appears in a list of istrumenti in Archivio Malvezzi-Campeggi, libro 3. According to Fornasini, , Breve cenno storico, p. 67Google Scholar, she had been born on 11 August 1494.
29 For a detailed discussion of the plot, see Fornasini, , Breve cenno storico, pp. 17–20Google Scholar.
30 Bologna, Museo Civico Medioevale, MS 638, bears two coats-of-arms, one of which can be identified with Franceschina Conforti, who had commissioned the manuscript, which was completed on 8 April 1400. Musco Civico MS 592 incorporates five different coats-of-arms within various illuminated initials, one pertaining to the prioress, Caterina Caccianemici, and another to Pompilia Bargellini, ‘the best and most exquisite singer’, who together had commissioned the work. Museo Civico MSS 583 and 589 were copied by Bernardina Isolani of Sant'Agnese in 1508, and both include her coat-of-arms. Another manuscript in Isolani's hand and bearing her coat-of-arms, but not previously identified with Sant'Agnese, also survives in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena (MS α.q.1.8).
31 Records of payment for the binding of choirbooks from Sant'Agnese exist for 1479 and 1482. See ASB, Demaniale 107/6772 (Sant'Agnese), account book, 1477–1488, fols. 29v and 81v [82v].
32 I am indebted to James Haar for the identification of Corteccia's Foll'è pur il desio.
33 See Pogue, S. F., Jacques Moderne, Lyons Music Printer of the Sixteenth Century (Geneva, 1969), pp. 163–5Google Scholar. There is nothing about the transcription to confirm Pogue's hypothesis that this version might be a 7. Merritt, A. Tillman, ‘Janequin: Reworkings of Some Early Chansons’, Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, ed. LaRue, J. (New York, 1966), p. 606Google Scholar, points out that the alto part also appears in the Bourdeney–Pasche manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Rés. Vma 851).
34 Háganle todos el buz is in fact the section of Flecha's La Batailla en Spagnol beginning ‘Venga al gran sennor’: the Bardini scribe had presumably copied the opening line from the relevant section of the tenor or bassus book, which begin with the second line of text.
35 Pogue, , Jacques Moderne, pp. 181–2Google Scholar, lists no concordances for these works.
36 Bar 82 of Carità di signore is omitted (an easy slip since the lower three parts are largely repetitive and the cantus rests); in Non vide il mondo bar 17 is omitted and bar 18 copied twice. More noticeable is the altered opening imitation of Un lauro mi difese (see below). The Bardini manuscript's more leisurely and repetitious beginning lacks the effect of the 1550 printed stretto of tenor and cantus. The scribe may simply have transcribed the left hand of bar 2 twice and made the cantus fit accordingly.
37 By the same token, the fact that the variously attributed no. 35 Novo piacer and no. 36 Non ved'hoggi'l mio sole had both appeared in Il primo libro di madrigali de diversi eccellentissimi autori a misura di breve (Venice: Gardane, 1542) suggests that both might have come from that collection.
38 I should like to thank Maureen Buja for making her transcriptions of Ruffo madrigals available to me.
39 See, for example, ‘A Source for the Early Madrigal’, Journal of the American Musicological Society [hereafter JAMS], 33 (1980), pp. 164–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 See Silbiger, , Italian Manuscript Sources, p. 24Google Scholar, for an enumeration of some of the manuscript sources.
41 For a discussion of Corteccia's – or his printer's – use of such signs see D'Accone, F., ed., Music of the Florentine Renaissance, x: Francesco Corteccia: Collected Secular Works: The First Book of Madrigals for Five and Six Voices, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae [hereafter CMM] 32/x (Stuttgart, 1981), pp. xii–xiiiGoogle Scholar; see also ibid., vol.vii: Matteo Rampollini: Il primo libro de la musica (n.p., 1974), pp. xv–xvi; also D'Accone, , ‘Matteo Rampollini and his Petrarchan Canzone Cycles’, Musica Disciplina, 27 (1973), pp. 83–6Google Scholar.
42 See Harrán, D., ‘New Evidence for Musica Ficta: The Cautionary Sign’, JAMS, 29 (1976), pp. 77–98Google Scholar, and ‘More Evidence for Cautionary Signs’, JAMS, 31 (1978), pp. 490–4Google Scholar. For a response to Harrán's first article, see Godt's, I. letter to the editor, JAMS, 31 (1978), pp. 385–95Google Scholar, which includes Harrán's answering arguments.
43 Harrán, ‘New Evidence for Musica Ficta’, p. 83.
44 For some other examples of sharps printed between repeated notes in Ruffo prints, see Occhi vaghi amorosi, O fortunato e aventuroso lago, Pace non trovo and Nasco's Non ha donna from Ruffo's, Secondo libro di madrigali a cinque voci (Venice, 1553)Google Scholar.
45 Gioseffe, Zarlino: The Art of Counterpoint, trans. Marco, G. A. and Palisca, C. V. (New Haven, 1968), p. 48Google Scholar. Einstein, A., The Italian Madrigal, trans. Krappe, A. H., Sessions, R. H. and Strunk, O., i (Princeton, 1949), p. 392Google Scholar. Meier, B., ‘Staats-kompositionen von Cyprien de Rore’, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 21 (1969), p. 90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Lowinsky, E., Cipriano de Rore's Venus Motet ([Provo, Utah] 1986), p. 38Google Scholar.
46 Jacobus Clemens non Papa opera omnia, CMM 4/ix (n.p., 1960), pp. 42 and 47.
47 Cipriani Rore: opera omnia, CMM 14/ii (n.p., 1963), p. 100.
48 See Slim, H. C., ‘Keyboard Music at Castell'Arquato by an Early Madrigalist’, JAMS, 15 (1962), pp. 35–47Google Scholar; D'Accone, F., ‘The Intavolatura di M. Alamanno Aiolli’, Musica Disciplina, 20 (1966), pp. 151–74Google Scholar.
49 In Gombert's O adorandum/Quod transiturus (nos. 29–30), for example, which employs the chiavette, the more wide-ranging bass (which falls to A in the original) forces the scribe below F to two low E's. Ruffo's Deh porgi (no. 20) is even more extreme, with the cantus climbing to g″ in the course of the piece and bass dropping to A for its final note, which might have forced the scribe to low D. The obvious expedient of putting the note up an octave avoided the problem. Very few pieces ignore the system. One might expect Ruffo's Occhi vaghi/Occhi leggiadri (nos. 4–5), combining treble clef in the cantus with tenor in the bassus and with an overall range of c to g″, to have been transposed down; the pieces appear in the manuscript at pitch, however. It might be significant that they are the first pieces in the manuscript to employ the chiavette and are followed by the first blank folios. The piece in the same clefs that had followed them in Ruffo's print, Viverò dunque, occurs only towards the end of the manuscript – where it is in fact transposed down a fifth. The only other exception, no. 21, Chiuso gran tempo, also by Ruffo, employs treble and baritone clefs in the original print, but has been entered at pitch in the manuscript. In these cases where the pieces appear at published pitch, the scribe avoided leger lines by introducing a treble clef on the right-hand staff and a baritone clef on the bass staff.
50 Jeppesen, K., Die italienische Orgelmusik am Anfang des Cinquecento (2nd edn, Copenhagen, 1960), i, pp. 58 and 21*–23*Google Scholar.
51 The source has been edited in Martinez-Göllner, M. L., Eine neue Quelle zur italienischen Orgelmusik des '500, Münchner Editionen zur Musikgeschichte 3 (Tutzing, 1982)Google Scholar. I should like to thank Oscar Mischiati for bringing this manuscript to my attention.
52 See Sermisy, Secourez moy (+4) from Vingt et cinq chansons musicales and Claudin, Dont vien cela (–4) from Vingt et six chansons musicales in Seay, A., ed., Pierre Attaingnant: Transcriptions of Chansons for Keyboard, CMM 20 (n.p., 1961)Google Scholar.
53 See Bonfils, J., ed., Chansons françaises pour orgue, Le Pupitre 5 (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar.
54 Claudin, Hau, hau, hau le boys from Dixneuf chansons musicales and Claudin, Changeons propos from Vingt et cinq chansons musicales, edited in Seay, A., Pierre Attaingnant, pp. 24–7 and 116–18Google Scholar, respectively.
55 See Pidoux, P., ed., Andrea Gabrieli: Intonationen für Orgel (Kassel, 1941), pp. 32–5Google Scholar.
56 See Slim, H. C., ed., Keyboard Music at Castell'Arquato, i: Dances and Dance Songs, Corpus of Early Keyboard Music [hereafter CEKM] 37/i (n.p., 1975), p. 20Google Scholar.
57 See Jackson, R., ed., Neapolitan Keyboard Composers, CEKM 24 (n.p., 1967), pp. 27–32Google Scholar.
58 Brown, H. M., Instrumental Music Printed Before 1600: A Bibliography (2nd edn, Cambridge, MA, 1967), p. 23nGoogle Scholar.
59 Kinkeldey, O., Orgel und Klavier in der Musik des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1910), p. 132Google Scholar.
60 The final twenty-two breves of Ferrabosco's Io mi son giovinetta and the even verses of a Lassus Magnificat primi toni. An anonymous, untitled transcription of a vocal work on fol. 10v of fascicle Iva may be a piece originally in chiavette which the scribe failed to transpose, however. All the Castell'Arquato vocal intabulations are discussed in Slim, H. C., ‘Some Puzzling Intabulations of Vocal Music for Keyboard C. 1600, at Castell'Arquato’, Five Centuries of Choral Music: Essays in honor of Howard Swan, ed. Paine, G. (New York, forthcoming)Google Scholar. The music will appear shortly in H. C. Slim, ed., Keyboard Music at Castell'Arquato, II: Masses, Magnificat, Liturgical Works, Dances and Madrigals, CEKM, 37/ii (forthcoming). I should like to thank Prof. Slim for kindly allowing me to examine the article and edition in proof.
61 The accompaniment to Donna se'l cor legas from Ghirlanda di Fioretti (1589) is also transposed, despite the use of soprano clef in the cantus, presumably because the part extends from c' to g″. The reason for the failure to transpose the ten works in chiavette is not immediately apparent. The same clef combinations and ranges reappear among the transposed works. Two examples of Verovio pieces with transposed accompaniments are printed in Kinkeldey, , Orgel und Klavier, pp. 280–2Google Scholar. Another is reproduced in facsimile in Bridges, T., ‘Verovio, Simone’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), xix, p. 677Google Scholar.
62 The following pieces were examined in modern edition and compared with their original vocal models (chiav=chiavette, nat=chiavi naturali, P=at pitch, –M2=transposed down a major second, +4= up a perfect fourth, etc.): Tout ce qu'on peut (chiav, –4) by Rore, Soupirs ardans (chiav, –4), Les yeux qui me sceurent prendre (nat, –M2), L'yver sera (chiav, –4), Au temps heureux (nat, +M2) by Arcadelt, M'amie un jour (chiav, –4) by Certon from Vaccaro, J., ed., Oeuvres d'Adrian Le Roy: Sixiesme livre de luth (1559) (Paris, 1978)Google Scholar; Lasje me plains (nat, P), Pourtant si je suis brunette (nat, P), Martin menoit (chiav. – M2), Vignon vignetta (nat, P) by Sermisy, Pater noster (nat, P), Stabat mater (chiav, –M2) by Josquin, La guerre (nat, P, +M2), Martin menoit (chiav, –M2), Le chant des oyseaux (chiav, –M2) by Janequin, O bone Jesu (nat, P) by Compère, Reveillez moy (nat, –M2) by Garnier, Pour avoir paix (chiav, –M2) by Layolle, Hors envieulx retires vous (nat, +m3) by Gombert, Fortune alors (nat, P) by Certon, De mon triste desplaisir (nat, P) by Richafort, Quanta beltà (nat, P) Quand'io penso al martir (nat, P) by Arcadelt from Ness, A., ed., The Lute Music of Francesco Canova da Milano, Harvard Publications in Music 3–4 (Cambridge, MA, 1970)Google Scholar; Vestiva i colli (chiav, –5), Se tra quest'herbe e fore (chiav, –M2), Io son ferito (chiav, –M2), Il dolce sono (chiav, –M2) by Palestrina, Io mi son giovinetta (chiav, –4) by Ferrabosco, Chi salira per me (chiav, – M2), A casa Un giorno (nat, P) by Wert, Come havran fin (nat, +m3), Quando lieta sperai (nat, P) by Rore, Qual'anima ignorante (nat, P) by Willaert, Deh porgi la mano (chiav, –5) by Ruffo, In qual parte del cielo (nat, P) by Monte, Nasce la pena mia (nat, P) by Striggio, La notte che segui (chiav, –4), In dubio di mio stato (chiav, –4), In dubio di mio stato (another setting, nat, P) by Lassus, O del mio navigar (nat, P) by Porta from MacClintock, C., trans. and ed., Vincenzo Galilei: Fronimo (1584), Musicological Studies and Documents 39 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1985)Google Scholar; Adiuva me Domine (nat, P), Pater peccavi (nat, –M2) by Consilium, Si bona suscepimus (nat, P) by Sermisy, Praeter rerum seriem (nat, P), Benedicta es caelorum regina (nat, P) by Josquin, Noe noe psallite (chiav, –5) by Mouton, Je suis déshéritée (chiav, –5) by Lupus/ Cadéac, D'un seul soleil (nat, P), L'aveugle dieu (nat, P) by Janequin, Il se treuve en amytie (nat, P), Mons vaulx (nat, P), Quel bien parler (nat, P), Voulant honneur (nat, P) by Sandrin from Vaccaro, J., ed., Oeuvres d'Albert de Rippe, ii (Paris, 1974)Google Scholar (a number of other works in this collection are listed as transposed in the introduction, but I have been unable to examine their models); Dignare me laudare (chiav, –5), Praeparate corda vestra Domino (chiav, –5) by Maillard, Je n'ay point plus d'affection (nat, P) by Sermisy, Voulant honneur (nat, P) by Sandrin from Souris, A. and de Morcourt, R., eds., Adrian Le Roy: Premier livre de tabulature de luth (1551) (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Qui souhaittez (nat, P), Voulant honneur (nat, P) by Sandrin, De mes ennuys (nat, P) by Arcadelt, D'amour me plains (nat, +M2) by Rogier Pathie, Elle voyant (nat, +M2) by Certon from Renault, M., ed., Oeuvres de Julien Belin (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar; Jesu nomen (nat, P), Erravi sicut (nat, P), Circumdederunt me (nat, P) by Clemens, Cantibus organis (nat, P), Domine si tu es (nat, P). Venite filii (nat. P) by Gombert. Qui habitat in adiutorio (nat. P), Faulte d'argent (nat, P) by Josquin from Homolya, I. and Benkő, D., eds., Valentini Bakfark opera omnia, ii (Budapest, 1979)Google Scholar; Amy souffres (nat, P) by Moulu, De retourner (nat, P), Languir me fais (nat, P), Vivray je tousjours (nat, P), J'atens secours (nat, P), Secourez moys (nat, P), Il me suffit (nat, P), Tant que vivray (nat, P), D'ou vient cela (nat, P), Jouissance (nat, -M2), Sij'ay pour vous (nat, -M2), Elle s'en va (nat, - M2) by Sermisy, the anonymous J'ay trop aime (nat, P), Cesfascheux sotz (nat, P), Dolent depart (nat, P), Je demeure seule esgaree (nat, P), Amour vault trop (nat, P), Une bergerote (nat, P) Le jaulne et blanc (nat, P), De toy me plains (nat, P), Puis que deux cueurs (nat, -4) from Heartz, D., ed., Preludes, Chansons and Dances for Lute, Published by Pierre Attaingnant (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1964)Google Scholar.
63 It is interesting to note that the scribe has copied only the portion of Phinot's text that has liturgical use (an antiphon at the Benedictus at lauds for the fifth Sunday after Epiphany) but abandons it just two words short of its conclusion (‘Hoc fecit [inimicus homo]’).
64 The handwriting of the added text contrasts somewhat with that of the original title, raising the possibility that the text might have been a subsequent addition as a kind ofjoke at the nuns' expense. The colour of the ink at least closely matches that of the music, however – indeed, it matches the music ink more closely than Ruffo's original title. The hand itself is not unlike hands from the second half of the sixteenth century. Rebecca Edwards has observed very similar scribal characteristics in Venetian documents dated 1566 and 1584, for example. I should like to thank Ms Edwards for her observations in this matter.
65 See Weaver, E., ‘Spiritual Fun: A Study of Sixteenth-Century Tuscan Convent Theatre’, Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Syracuse, 1986), p. 204 n. 54Google Scholar.
66 The Bardini keyboard manuscript, of course, contains only their titles, and not the full texts, which have been recovered from Moderne.
67 ‘Some Puzzling Intabulations’.
68 Cento concerti ecclesiastici (1602), quoted in Strunk, O., Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950), p. 419Google Scholar.
69 The most detailed discussion of music in Italian nunneries appears in Bowers, J., ‘The Emergence of Women Composers in Italy, 1566–1700’, Women Making Music, ed. Bowers, J. and Tick, J. (Urbana and Chicago, 1986), pp. 116–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
70 Of the eighty-three nuns listed in the notarial document of 1558 in Bologna, Archivio Arcivescovile, Ricuperi beneficiari, fascicolo 8, forty-six come from the 100 noble families described in Dolfi, Cronologia, while another fourteen bear family names mentioned by Dolfi as having married members of the ‘first families’.
71 ‘la pietà, e religione, honesta et bontà…l ' ago, la musica, il suono, le lettere, tanto greche, quanto latine’ ASB, Archivio Malvezzi-Campeggi, serie 2a, 27/264, a loose sheet among ‘Allegati alla qui unita Istoria Malvezzi’.
72 In ‘The Emergence of Women Composers’, p. 132, Jane Bowers points out that the study of music was considered appropriate for girls intended for the religious life.
73 On the history of Sant'Agnese, see Cambria, Il monastero domenicano, on which I have relied for the following details.
74 ‘A mr Biazzo mastellazo ad xviij d[el] dto [soldo] uno p[er] pagare lo portadore d[el] l'organo p[er] la festa di S. Agnese da S. Sebastiã al mon.’ ASB, Demaniale 107/6772 (Sant'Agnese), account book, 1477–88, fol. 26v.
75 According to Baldassare Carrati (BCB, MS b921, p. 127) a Suora Leonora Florida Ferraboschi had professed at Sant'Agnese on 7 March 1602. In a notarial document dated 14 October 1601 (ASB, Notarili, Cavazza Ercole Prot°ii, fol.182r–184v)Susanna Ferrabosco, wife of Alfonso Ferrabosco, and Carlo Emanuele, his son, agreed to sell a piece of property partly to provide £1000 towards the nun's dowry of Catherina, Susanna's daughter and Carlo Emanuele's sister (‘Et quas pecunias diceru[n]t mille [?] errogare in monacazne Dna Catherina eos filia et sorore.’). A thousand lire would represent a plausible dowry for a nun organist around 1600. A very rough draft of another document dated 20 November 1602 (ASB, Notarili, Maladrati Francesco, Filza 1 [1583–1602], fol. 171) – several months after the apparent profession of Leonora Florida Ferrabosco – still speaks of providing £1000 for the marriage or nun's dowry of Catherina, however. None of the other members of the Ferrabosco family whose names appear in the records of Bolognese nunneries seems to correspond more closely to Catherina, the daughter of Alfonso Ferrabosco, however. Leonora Florida Ferrabosco also served as sotto-priora of Sant'Agnese from 2 May 1639 until 13 April 1643 (BCB, MS b921, p. 152).
76 ‘Considerando Io essese inevitabili gli scandali, quando vi Si continuasse la Musica, per laquale essendo copioso il Concorso del Popolo…nella Chiesa delle Monache di S. Agnese soggette al governo de P. P. Domenicani non solo vi seguirono le solite immodestie ma altresi nel secondo Vespro non puote terminarsi, poiche occupato sino lo stesso Altar Maggiore dalla gente, nell' atto di cantarsi il Magnificat, non fu possibile al Sacerdote parato col Piviale, et alli due Assistenti andar ad incensare l'Altare, e gli convenne portarsene in Sacristia, partendo li Musici ancora, che non puotero proseguire la Musica a cagione del gran rumore, che impediva loro di sentire le voci.’ ASB, Demaniale 48/2909 (Santa Christina).
77 ‘Fa anchor bisogno che vi disponiate…a por da banda tutti quei perniciosi costumi che sin hora hanno causato la ruina vostra. Lasciate dunque il canto figurato, quale anchora che alli altri religiosi sia dicevole, a voi o gran parte di voi è stato causa di gran danno.’ BCB, MS b778, p. 195, quoted in Fanti, M., Abiti e lavori delle monache di Bologna (Bologna, 1972), pp. 26–7Google Scholar.
78 ‘quod non cantetur in cantu figurato in choro, nec in organo, nisi in maximis solemnitatibus’; Cambria, Il monastero domenicano, p. 112, quoting from In monasterium bononiensibus(20 julii) ordinationes.
79 ‘Perché nella nostra città s'usa di far queste musiche solenni dalle suore, quali son cagione di molti scandalosi disordini come giornalmente proviamo, perciò supplico vostra signoria illustrissima di farne parola nell'illustrissima Congregazione che parendoli mi mandino ordini di prohibir dette musiche solenni, che sarà opera santissima’; quoted in Zannini, G. L. Masetti, ‘Espressioni musicali in monasteri femminili del primo Seicento a Bologna’, Strenna Storica Bolognese, 35 (1985), p. 197Google Scholar.
80 ‘Non vi sia alcuna, che ardisca di ca[n]tare, o suonare alle Grate, ne alle Porte alla presenza d'alcun' huomo, o donna …Se le prohibisce ancora …l'admettere qual si voglia sorte de Maestri ad insegnare alli loro Monasterij, e specialmente Musici, ancora che per provare qualche loro Musica, si nell'Organo, comme nel Canto. Notificandole, che dalla publicatione del presente ordine s'intendeno rivocate, & annullate tutte le licenze fin qui, per qual si voglia causa, & in qual si voglia modo concesse. Auvertendo le Monache tutte, si in Choro, e sul'Organo, come nelle loro Camere, che non cantino cose volgari, ma latine, Ecclesiastiche, e religiose, sotto pene d'esser prive di piu cantare, e suonare per l'auvenire.’ Compendio d'ordini rinovati, et stabiliti per il buon governo delli monasterij di monache dall'lllmo et Rmo Monsre Alfonso Paleotti (Bologna, 1598), pp. 7–8Google Scholar, preserved in BCB, MS Gozz. 405 and headed in ink ‘Ordine del Monast° delle Suore di Sta Elena’. The portion after the first sentence has been scratched through several times in ink. Similar prohibitions reappear again and again in about a dozen decrees preserved in archives of Bolognese nunneries during the period from 1600 to 1675. On similar decrees in other cities, especially Milan, see Bowers, ‘The Emergence of Women Composers’.
81 ASB, Demaniale 32/6061 (SS. Gervasio e Protasio), Demaniale 51/3918 (Santa Margarita), Demaniale 95/4021 (Santa Catterina), Demaniale 80/814 (San Guglielmo), Demaniale 41/4884 (San Agostino). On the private ownership of an organ at San Agostino and the use of trombones at San Giovanni Battista, see G. L. Masetti Zannini, ‘Espressioni musicali’, pp. 203 and 200–1 respectively.
82 Demaniale 51/3918 (Santa Margarita), inventory of Suor Emilia Arali: ‘libri p[er] sonar e cantar n 7’; Demaniale 32/6061 (San Gervasio), a coverless Libro di memorie, fol. 97, records that the future organist, Verginia di Giulio Cesare dal Grosso, was to be furnished with ‘tutti li instrumenti et libri quali esercita et si appartengono alle Sue Virtu’; Demaniale 80/814 (San Guglielmo), Raccordi p[er] il monastero, entry no.21: ‘una cassa de libri da cantare’.
- 4
- Cited by