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Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga (1542–93): ‘Quel padrone confidentissimo’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Iain Fenlon*
Affiliation:
King's College, Cambridge

Extract

If Scipione Gonzaga is remembered at all today, it is most likely to be for his friendship and patronage of Torquato Tasso; as the dedicatee of the poet's youthful Discorsi dell'arte poetica and one of his dialogues, the transcriber (in the crucial year 1575) of all the stanzas of the Liberata then available to him, and the editor of the celebrated edition of the full text of the poem brought out by the Mantuan printer Osanna in 1584. Of his own literary efforts little remains. A handful of poems in a respectable if conventional Petrarchesque idiom appeared during his lifetime; on the other hand the Commentam, evidently inspired by classical precedent and a rare example from the period of a prelate's autobiography, was not published until the end of the eighteenth century when it appeared in an elaborate edition with annotations by Giuseppe Marotti.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 For the origins of the tradition that Scipione copied out the Gerusalemme liberata, a fact not mentioned in his autobiography, see the evidence in Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, ed Angelo Solerti, 3 vols (Florence, 1896), i, 127 For differing opinions about which of the surviving texts are to be identified with Scipione's copy of 1575 see Caretti, Lanfranco, ‘Il codice Gonzaga della “Liberata”’, Medioevo e umanesimo, 17 (1974), 317–30, and Luigi Poma, ‘II vero codice Gonzaga (e prime note sul testo della “Liberata”)’, Studi di filologia italiana, 40 (1982), 193–216 For the Osanna edition see Rhodes, Dennis Everard, ‘Some Notes on Francesco Osanna of Mantua, Torquato Tasso, and Others’, British Museum Quarterly, 31 (1966–7), 1–4 The Discorsi dell'arte poetica, written during the 1560s and perhaps as early as 1564, were not published until 1587, the Discorsi del poema eroico, finally dedicated to Pietro Aldobrandino, were also evidently intended to be addressed to Scipione as ‘veri testimonii della mia antica servitú’ (see Torquato Tasso Discorsi dell'arte poetica e del poema-eroico, ed Luigi Poma (Ban, 1964), [263]ff) For the Dialoght see Torquato Tasso Dialoghi, ed Ezio Raimondi, 3 vols (Florence, 1958), i, 8–13Google Scholar

2 From internal evidence, it seems that the autobiography, Scipione Gonzaga, Commentanorum rerum suarum librt tres Accessit liber quartus Josepho Marotto quos Alotsius Valentius Gonzaga cardinalis primum edidit et Cajetano fratn inscripsit (Rome, 1791), was begun in 1579 and finished in 1587, six years before Scipione's death Giuseppe Marotti, a professor at the Collegio romano, was commissioned to produce his edition of Scipione's autobiography by Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga; see Tiraboschi, Girolamo, Storia della letteratura italiana Nuova edtztone, 9 vols (Florence, 1805–13), vii, 1118 For Scipione's own verse see below, pp 7980Google Scholar

3 Ludwig Friedrich August von Pastor, The History of the Popes, trans Frederick Ignatius Antrobus, Ralph Francis Kerr, Ernest Graf and E F Peller (London, 1891–) (translation of Geschichte der Papste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters), 40 vols (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1886–9), xxi, 252, 258Google Scholar

4 This plate (f b4) faces the opening of the Liber primus in the Commentarii A painting dateable c 1582, and which presents a decidedly less elegant impression, is among the collection of Gonzaga portraits formed by the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at the instigation of his wife Anna Caterina Gonzaga, and now in the castle of Ambras near Innsbruck See Giuseppe Amadei and Ercolano Maram, I ritratti Gonzagheschi della collezione di Ambras (Mantua, 1978), 149–50 The Ambras portraits, which include all the major members of the family from the period 1318–1580, are reputedly made from originals then in Mantua but now lostGoogle Scholar

5 His date of birth is given in Marotti's ‘Annotationes et monumenta’ to Gonzaga, Commentartorum rerum suarum, 367, n 6, on the basis of a marginal gloss in the autograph of the CommenlamGoogle Scholar

6 For Lucrezia see Paul F Grendler, Critics of the Italian World 1530–1560 Anton Francesco Dont, Nicolo Franco and Ortensto Lando (Madison, 1969), 35Google Scholar

7 Gonzaga, Commentartorum rerum suarum, 3Google Scholar

8 See Luzio, Alessandro, La galleria dei Gonzaga venduta in Inghilterra net 1627–28 (Milan, 1913), 273–4! Giuha Gonzaga is specifically cited in Gonzaga, Commentariorum rerum suarum, 7 ‘Julia ilia Gonzaga Vespasiano Columnae nupta, cujus egregia corporis forma laudatore non eget, cum ejus effigies ab omnibus fere conquiratur diligentissime, et conquisita inter maxime pretiosa habeatur’ She was famed for her beauty and was painted by, among others, Sebastiano del Piombo and Titian, see Croce, Benedetto, ‘I ritratti di Giuha Gonzaga’, Anedotti di varia letteratura (Ban, 1953), 339–45, 347–52Google Scholar

9 Gonzaga, Commentartorum rerum suarum, 10ffGoogle Scholar

10 The conclave of 1559 is discussed in Pastor, History of the Popes, xv, 165Google Scholar

11 Gonzaga's role at the Council of Trent is discussed in Giuseppe Amadei, Cronaca universale della città di Mantova, 5 vols (Mantua, 1954–7), n, 731–2, and Giovanni Drei, La corrispondenza del cardinale Ercole Gonzaga presidente del Concilio di Trento (1562–1563) (Parma, 1918) Hubert Jedin, Papal Legate at the Council of Trent, Cardinal Seripando, trans Frederic Clement Eckhoff (St Louis, Mo, 1947), 578–9, quotes Vergerio's remark about Cardinal Senpando and Ercole at Trent ‘I know of no-one who has loved or favoured me more, perhaps God has brought them to Trent to bring about reconciliation with the Protestants ‘Google Scholar

12 According to Tasso's dialogue Delle imprese, Scipione adopted the device of a galley being rowed with lowered sails and the motto ‘PROPRIIS NITAR’ on the death of Cardinal Ercole, hence in the Accademia degli Eterei he had taken the academic name of L'Affanato See also Camillo Camilli, Imprese illustri di diversi (Venice, 1586), i, 168–70, where the impresa is illustratedGoogle Scholar

13 Solerti, Vita di Torquato Tasso, i, 91ffGoogle Scholar

14 For the early history of the Invaghiti see Maylender, Michele, Slona delle accademie d'Italia, 5 vols (Bologna, 1926–30), in, 363–4, and now Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1980–2), i, 36–7Google Scholar

15 Giacomo [Castellani], Compommenti volgan et latim di diversi et eccellenti aulori, in morte di Monsignore Hercole Gonzaga, Cardinal di Manlova, con la vita del medesimo (Mantua, 1564) The collection also includes two poems (by Annibale Buonagenti and Girolamo Fenaruolo) addressed to Scipione himselfGoogle Scholar

16 Maylender, Storia delle accademie d'Itaha, n, 263–5, 319–23Google Scholar

17 This volume includes 15 verses by Scipione himself, the largest group of his published poetry, also among the contributors are Torquato Tasso, Ridolfo Arlotti and Giovanni Battista Guarini (for whose membership of the Eterei see Rossi, Vittorio, Battista Guarini ed il Pastor Fido Studio biografico-critico con documenti medili (Turin 1885), 18) The Rime was reprinted in smaller format in 1588 with a dedication to ScipioneGoogle Scholar

18 See Turrini, Giuseppe, L'Accademia filarmonica di Verona dalla fondazione (maggio 1543) al 1600 e il suo patrimonio musicale antico (Verona, 1941), and Enrico Paganuzzi, ‘Il Cinquecento’, La musica a Verona (Verona, 1976), 129–55Google Scholar

19 Di Francesco Porlinaro maestro delta nobile et virtuoso Academia di Padoa il quarto libro de madrigali a cinque voci con dui madrigali a sei dui dialoghi a sette et dui a otto novamente da lui composti et dati in luce, libro quarto (Venice, 1560) Portinaro's name does not occur among the members of the academy listed in Maylender, Storia delle accademie, il, 264Google Scholar

20 According to Gonzaga, Commentariorum rerum suarum, 20, Scipione went to Padua at the age of 16 ‘Anno igitur aetatis sextodecimo, et ipse Herculis jussu Patavium se contulit, philosophiae studns operam daturus, quod et duorum propinquorum, qui ilium praeiverant, institutum fuit ‘Google Scholar

21 For Ercole's interest in music, both in the context of his control of the Mantuan diocese and in his private capacity, see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 4778Google Scholar

22 Gonzaga, Commentanorum rerum suarum, 12 ‘Delectabatur Hercules non mediocriter musica, et pictura; accidit autem, ut Scipio nsdem artibus natura mirifice esset addictus, quare cum, adhibitis magistris, videretur in us aliquanto plus proffecisse, quam ferme solent n, qui nobili loco nati sunt, vel eo nomine carior deinceps Herculi fuit ‘Google Scholar

23 The title-page reads. Di Paolo Clerico da Parma li madrigali a cinque voci, libro secondo Dedicati si come e il primo all'illustriss. et reverendiss. signore, il signore Hercole Conzaga [sic] cardinal di Mantova (Venice, 1562)Google Scholar

24 Marc'Antomo da Pordenone, Il primo libro de madngalt a quattro voci (Venice, 1580)Google Scholar

25 Casulana, Maddalena, Il primo libro de madngalt a quattro voci (Venice, 1568), Filippo Duc, Il primo libra de madrigali a quattro voa con una serenata et un dialogo a otto nel fine (Venice, 1570), Giovanni Pizzoni, Il quarto libro delle canzoni a cinque voct (Venice, 1582), Scipionc Dentice, Il primo libro de madngali a cinque voct (Naples, 1591), Rinaldo del Mel, Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque voct (Venice, 1594), Pomponio Nenna, L'ottavo libro de madrigali a cinque (Rome, 1618) All set the complete text, as Clerico had done, despite what is implied by the entries for these prints in Emil Vogel, Alfred Einstein, François Lesure and Claudio Sartori, Bibliografia delta musica italiana vocale profana, 3 vols (Pomezia, 1977), in, 319–20Google Scholar

26 Gonzaga, Commentariorum rerum suarum, liber secundus, is the main source of information about Scipione's activities between his Paduan years and his permanent return to Rome A glimpse of his musical interest and connections towards the end of the 1560s, during his stay with Cardinal Ippolito d'Este at the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, is provided by the following letter ‘Sapendo 10 quanto Vostra Eccellenza sia inchnata alia musica et quanto in particolare oda voluntieri le cose del mio Palestrina, le mando con questa due suoi motetti non indcgni per mio giuditio dell'orecchie di lei’ See Canal, Pietro, Della musica in Mantova (Venice, 1881), 30, and Antonino Bertolotti. Musia alla corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal secolo XV al XVIII Notizie e documenti raccolti negli archivi mantovani (Milan, [1890]), 48. For Duke Guglielmo's interests in music see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 85ffGoogle Scholar

27 For documentation of the development of the villa and gardens at Tivoli see Coffin, David Robbins, The Villa d'Este at Tivoli (Princeton, 1960), and Carl Lamb, Die Villa d'Este in Tivoli (Munich, 1966); the project is also treated in the more general context of villa building in Rome and us contado in David Robbins Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome (Princeton, 1979), 311–40Google Scholar

28 Marc-Antoine Muret, Opera omnia, ed Carl Heinrich Frotscher (Leipzig, 1984), ii, 50Google Scholar

29 For the Agevoli see Cipriani, C, ‘L'Accademia degli Agevoli’, Atti e memorie della Soctetà tiburtina di stona e d'arte, 44 (1971), 199204 The first published tribute to the delights of Tivoli is Foglietta's long Latin description (see Foglietta, Uberto, Uberti Folietae opera subsiciva opuscula varta (Rome, 1579), 37–45), the later activities of the Agevoli are reflected in Antonio del Re, Antichità tiburtine (Tivoli, 1611), see especially the prefaceGoogle Scholar

30 The history of the Villa d'Este at Monte Cavallo, on the Quirinal, is laid out in detail in Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, 202–14, see also Wasserman, Jack, ‘The Quirinale Palace in Rome’, Art Bulletin, 45 (1963), 205–44 Montegiordano, a fifteenth-century building now called Palazzo Taverna di Monte Giordano, was rented by Luigi d'Este for life from Paolo Giordano OrsiniGoogle Scholar

31 See Muret, , Opera, ii, 89–90, letters LI and LIIGoogle Scholar

32 For some of the visitors, some of whom left accounts of the wonders of the villa and its gardens, see the avvisi summarized in Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, 338–9Google Scholar

33 Ledbetter, Steven, ‘Luca Marenzio New Biographical Findings’ (Ph D dissertation, New York University, 1971), 17 The earliest record of Marenzio's service with Luigi d'Este (and indeed of his career) is contained in the Cardinal's Libro dei salariali for 1577–8 (ASMod), f 159, which registers a payment on 1 August 1578 for ‘Luca Marentio Musico novamente venuto a stare con Mon[signore] Ill[ustrissimo] N[ostro]’ (see Ledbetter, ‘Luca Marenzio’, 27 and appendix, no 2)Google Scholar

34 This, the five-voice madrigal Donna bella e crudele, appears in the collection Il pnmo fiore della ghirlanda mustcale (Venice, G Scotto, 1577) The dedication, dated 20 July 1587, by Giovan Battista Mosto of Udine, claims that the anthology was ‘da me scielte & dall'Eccellente M Claudio da Correggio [Merulo], già mio precettore’ With the exception of Palestrina, all the composers represented (Striggio, Andrea Gabrieh, Wert, Lasso, Monte and Ingegneri) were active in north Italy It may be that Merulo had encountered Marenzio's talents through his contacts in Brescia, where he worked briefly as an organist in the 1550sGoogle Scholar

35 Prinzivalh, Virgimo, Torquato Tasso nella vita e nelle open (Rome, 1895), 228–9, Prinzivalli's source is BAV Cod Urb. 1056Google Scholar

36 On Faccone see Bertolotti, Musia alla carte dei Gonzaga, 67ff, 82ff and 90ff, and Artisti in relatione cot Gonzaga duchi di Mantova net secoli XVI e XVII Ricerche e studi negli archivi mantovant (Modena, 1885), 118ffGoogle Scholar

37 For further discussion of the foundation and early operations of Santa Barbara see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 79–117 The correspondence between Duke Gughelmo Gonzaga and Cardinal Sirleto is preserved in BAV Cod vat lat 6946, 6182 and 6183Google Scholar

38 ASM (AG) 3294 ‘e se bene i canton sono pochi suppliscono i cappellani, ordinati et chierici, che tutti cantano per ragion di musica‘Google Scholar

39 For details of the rite see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 102ff Odescalco's letter to the Duke of Mantua concerning Rodolfo Palestrina, dated from Rome 3 January 1573, is given in Bertolotti, Musici alla carte del Gonzaga, 49 (the original is in ASM (AG) 909)Google Scholar

40 The details of the dispute can be followed by putting together Duke Gughelmo Gonzaga's letters as recorded in the copialetlere in ASM (AG) 2985, ff 44ff, and Scipione Gonzaga's letters to both Aurelio Zibramonte and the Duke of Mantua in ASM (AG) 911, beginning with his reply of 2 January 1574Google Scholar

41 See the letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 16 January 1574, to Aurelio Zibramonte in Mantua (ASM (AG) 911), it is this letter which identifies Contino as ‘Brixiensis‘Google Scholar

42 See the letter of Scipione Gonzaga to Bishop Odescalco, 28 February 1574 ‘ha aviso di Brescia che il Decano di Santa Barbara stave così male che a quest'hora deve esser morto, però V S sara contenta di non far ispedire piú la sua bolla sopra l'assolutione dall'irregolarità’ A further letter from Gonzaga, Gazzuolo 6 March 1574, announces Contino's death For both see ASM (AG) 2985, ff 78, 80Google Scholar

43 The fundamental study of Contino's career remains that of Paolo Guerrini, ‘Giovanni Contino di Brescia’, Note d'archwio, 1 (1924), 130–42Google Scholar

44 Contino, Giovanni, Modulationum quinque vocum liber primus (Venice, 1560) ‘elatus ibi [in tuam familiam] in spem maximam integros duodecim annos vitam simplicem et tranquillam egi inter uberes Musicae et Poeticae hortus‘Google Scholar

45 Contino moved to Mantua in 1561, for the most detailed summary of the documentation see Tagmann, Pierre Marcel, Archivalische Studien zur Musikpflege am Dom von Mantua (1500–1627) (Bern, 1967), 17 Guerrini's suggestion that Contino was employed as maestro di cappella at Santa Barbara is implausible, since Duke Gughelmo Gonzaga did not make the decision to build the church until 1562Google Scholar

46 Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 106Google Scholar

47 In a letter of 1586 Scipione Gonzaga wrote that Marenzio ‘would serve his highness [the Duke of Mantua] more willingly than perhaps any other prince whatsoever, since he remembers having already spent several years in the same service’ (ASM (AG) 941), letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 31 May 1586, to Duke Guglielmo in Mantua For the suggestion that Marenzio's previous period of service took place in the early seventies see Ledbetter, Steven, ‘Marenzio's Early Career’, Journal of the American Musicologicol Society, 32 (1979), 304–20 (p 311)Google Scholar

48 The details of Palestrin's contacts with Manuta are discussed in Bertolotti, Mustci alla corte del Gonzaga, 47–55, and Oliver Strunk, ‘Guglielmo Gonzaga and Palestrina's Missa Domenicalis’, Essays on Music in the Western World (New York, 1974), 94107 For a concise account, which brings out Capello's role, see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 90–2 Sec, for a typical example of Duke Guglielmo's interest in relics, Capello's letter of 12 April 1578, which reports the availability of a collection ‘che son rimaste nella chiesa della suori di Campo Martio’ (ASM (AG) 923)Google Scholar

49 For a general account of Muret's contacts with Mantua see Bertolotti, Antonino, Lettres tnédits de M.-A Muret et documents les concemants transcrits aux archives de Mantoue et de Rome (Limoges, 1886). For the Santa Barbara hymns, and Wert's settings, see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 115Google Scholar

50 ASMod Amministrazione, no 1353, note against entry of 2 June 1582, reported in Ledbetter, ‘Luca Marenzio’, 72–3 For a further set of negotiations over a musician in which Capello also played a part see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 89.Google Scholar

51 Prinzivalli, Torquato Tasso nella vita e nelle opere, 226–7Google Scholar

52 Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, 339Google Scholar

53 ASM (AG) 940 Letters of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 5, 15 and 26 January, to Federico Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

54 See Pastor, , History of the Popes, xxi, 236–7 For the announcement of his appointment as Patriarch of Jerusalem see ASM (AG) 940 letters of Scipione, Rome 29 September 1585, to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua According to a contemporary comment reported in Prinzivalli, Torquato Tasso nella vita e nelle opere, 228, Scipione's elevation ‘ha sodisfatto intieramente la corte e tutti in generale’, the official ceremony took place on 10 December (see Pastor, History of the Popes, xxii, 194)Google Scholar

55 See ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 18 January 1586, to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga in Mantua, and ASM (AG) 943 letter of Camillo Capilupi, Rome 18 January 1586, to the same recipient Scipione's letter is excerpted in Bertolotti, Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga, 66, and is given in full in Bertolotti, Artisti, 117 The copialetlera of Duke Gughelmo's reply, in ASM (AG) 2956, lib. 392, strikes a distinctly personal note 'Ho ricevuto la muta de libri musicali del Nanino i quali mi sono stati can per rispetto del loro auttore et per essere accompagnati dall'amorevole lettera da V S R maGoogle Scholar

56 Information about Capilupi is taken from ASM (D'Arco), Delle farmglit manlovane, n, 331, and ASM (D'Arco), Mule scntton mantovam, n, 213 Capilupi had been a regular correspondent with the Gonzaga since the late 1550s, later in his career he served as papal nuncio in Switzerland and Naples before returning to his native Mantua where he diedGoogle Scholar

57 Conforto had been a singer in the papal chapel from 1580 to the end of October 1585 It has been suggested that Giacomello may have been identical with a ‘Gian Battista’ who had been offered an appointment in Mantua in both 1571 and 1577 (see Canal, Delia musica in Mantova, 45); if so, it is strange that no reference to a previous period of service is made in the letters of 1586 For an exhaustive treatment of Giacomello's career see now Mario Fabbn, ‘La vicenda umana e artistica di Giovanni Battista Jacomelh “Del Violino” deuleragonista della camerata fiorentina’, Firenzt e la Toscana dei Media nell'Europa del '500, 3 vols (Florence, 1983), n, 397438Google Scholar

58 ASM (AG) 943 letter of Camillo Capilupi, Rome 8 February 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua Partially quoted in Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 191 (document 58)Google Scholar

59 The progress of the negotiations can be followed in Capilupi's letters from Rome to Capilupi in Mantua of 18 February, 8 March, 15 March and 22 March, all in ASM (AG) 943 Scipione's interestingly descriptive letter, Rome 29 March 1586, to Federico Gonzaga in Mantua (ASM (AG) 9+1) is partially quoted in Richard Sherr, ‘Gughelmo Gonzaga and the Castrati’, Renaissance Quarterly, 33 (1980), 3356 (p 43)Google Scholar

60 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 5 April 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua Partially quoted in Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 190–1 (document 56) The ‘Neapolitan’ manner is presumably the style of improvised ornamentation described as such in Vincenzo Giustiniani's Discorso (see Carol MacClintock, Hercole Bottrigari Il desideno, Vincenzo Giustiniani Discorso sopra la musica ([n p.], 1962), 6870Google Scholar

61 The two reports are ASM (AG) 943 letter of Camillo Capilupi, Rome 5 April 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua, and ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 19 April 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua The latter is paraphrased in Bertolotti, Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga, 67, and quoted in Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 191 (document 57) See also Sherr, ‘Gughelmo Gonzaga and the Castrati’, 44–5Google Scholar

62 See ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 3 May 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in Mantua. Margaret of Austria had maintained a palace and estates at Aquila, the dispersal of her famiglia was presumably caused by her death on 15 January 1586 For further details see Alfred von Reumont, ‘Margherita d'Austria, Duchessa di Parma’, Archivio storico italiano, 4th series, 6 (1880), 1574Google Scholar

63 ASM (AG) 943 letter of Camillo Capilupi, Rome 12 April 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

64 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Holy Saturday 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

65 ASMod Ambasciatori (Roma) 81 Peruzzi, letter of 7 May 1586Google Scholar

66 The stories concerning Ferrara and France are reported in Scipione Gonzaga's letters from Rome, 3 May and 10 May 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in Mantua, see below, nn 69–70 That service with the King of France remained a genuine possibility throughout 1586 is suggested by Marenzio's decision to dedicate Il quarto libro de madrigali a set voci (Venice, 1586, dedication dated 10 December) to the French Ambassador, the Marchese di PisanoGoogle Scholar

67 During the summer of 1582 Wert had become seriously ill with malaria, and had to be replaced by Gastoldi It may have been this turn of events which prompted Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga to consult Palcstrina about a successor, for the details of these discussions, in the course of which the names of Marenzio, Palestrina's protége Annibale Zoilo, and Palestrina himself were all suggested, (see Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 89)Google Scholar

68 Marenzio, Luca, Motecla fesiorum totius annt liber primus (Venice, 1585) ‘Illustrissimo in primisque Reverendo Domino Scipioni Gonzagae Marchioni et Sacri Romani Imperii Principi Lucas Marentius Salve Nam & aliquo mihi argumento declarenda erat magnitudo & humanitatis ac benevolentiae erga me tuae, & observantiae erga te meae & haec ex artificio musico deprompta munuscula nullum sibi patronum adoptare libentius poterant, quam eum qui in ipso Musarum sinu ita alius atque educatus est, ut omnes lepores, omnesque fratias ore atque aspectus ipso spirare videatur Summa genus nobilitas. admirabilis omnium studio dignarum artium cognitio, summa apud potentissimos principes gratia, eiusdemque generis alia, quibus flores, invidiam tibi ahquam concitare poterant, nisi ea omnia promptiora semper apud te & paratiora essent alienis usibus, quam tuis [ete]‘Google Scholar

69 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 3 May 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in Mantua. Scipione's letters about his negotiations with Marenzio have been frequently drawn upon starting with Bertolotti, for more recent accounts see Ledbetter, ‘Luca Marenzio’, 96–101, and Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 112–14Google Scholar

70 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 10 May 1586, to Federico Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

71 ASM (AG) letter of Camillo Capilupi, 17 May 1586, to Fedenco Cataneo in Mantua Giacomelli did not finally leave for Mantua until almost a month later; see the further letter from Capilupi, 12 June 1596, in the same bustaGoogle Scholar

72 See the article on Cavalien in the Dizionarto biografico degli italiantGoogle Scholar

73 ASM (AG) 941: letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 31 May 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua For discussion of this earlier period of Gonzaga service see above, p. 00Google Scholar

74 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 31 May 1586, to Federico Cataneo in Mantua.Google Scholar

75 Fenlon, Music and Patronage, i, 89Google Scholar

76 ASM (AG) 941. letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 21 June 1586, to Federico Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

77 Luigi d'Este died on 30 December 1586, and on 9 January Cataneo wrote to another Mantuan agent in Rome, Attilio Malegnani, with instructions to re-open discussions with Marenzio Negotiations continued until the early spring, but eventually faltered again over the composer's terms Details of this final abortive attempt to engage Marenzio's services for the Gonzaga court can be largely recuperated from Malegnani's letters from Rome, all in ASM (AG) 947, see also Ledbetter, ‘Luca Marenzio’, [102]–105Google Scholar

78 ASM (AG) 943 letter of Camillo Capilupi, Rome 15 June 1586, to Federico Cataneo in MantuaGoogle Scholar

79 ASM (AG) 941 letter of Scipione Gonzaga, Rome 8 November 1586, to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga in Mantua For his later career in the Cappella Giulia see Rostirolla, Giancarlo, ‘La Cappella Giulia in San Pietro negli anni palestriniani’, in Atti del convegno di studi Palestnniani, ed Francesco Luisi (Palestnna, 1977), 227Google Scholar

80 Solerti, Vila di Torquato Tasso, i, 179–80Google Scholar

81 Einstein, Alfred, The Italian Madrigal, 3 vols. (Princeton, 1949), ii, 519CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82 On the basis of the information in James Chater ‘Fonti poetiche per i madrigah di Luca Marenzio’, Rivtsta italiana di musicologia, 13 (1978), 84103Google Scholar

83 The biographical details are taken from Solerti, Vila di Torquato Tasso, i, 328–50 For the early printed editions see Gtrusalemme liberata, ed Angelo Solerti, i, 131–64, remarkably for its time Solerti's ‘Bibliografia delle stampe’ is followed by a listing of printed musical settings of passages from the epicGoogle Scholar

84 The quote is taken from one of Guarini's letters; see Gonzaga, Commentariorum rerum suarum, 420 (Marotti's annotations).Google Scholar

85 See the letter of Giorgio Alario, cited in Luzio, La gallena dei Gonzaga, 273–4 ‘II Cardinale Scipio ha raccolti in spatio di 30 anni incirca et ha le cose migliori di Alberto Duro in rame e in legno, che e stato il primo huomo in questa professione ‘Google Scholar