Naval records seem an unlikely source of information about musicians, but many unlikely things happened in Venice. It has recently come to light that Venetian craft guilds served as conscription agencies for the Armada and revenue agencies for the Republic. Hence, one of the things that is to be found among naval records in the Venetian State Archives is a series of reports from the instrumentalists’ guild (‘arte di sonadori’) concerning its membership. The surviving documents relate principally to the period from 1672 to 1727, although the alliance of guild and government was operative for several centuries. The reports of membership are notably lengthy (guild membership seems to have been on average about 170) and frequently include members’ ages, knowledge of which was vital to estimates of potential naval strength. In the following pages the reader will find an annotated listing of names and ages representing the contents of the seven membership lists in the fascicle labelled ‘Sonadori’ in Bus ta 553 of the archival source ‘Milizia da Mar’. No corresponding records of a guild of ‘cantori’ have come to light.

Many aspects of the performance of early seventeenth-century monodic song remain a mystery. On the basis of the musical notation alone, we might be tempted to wonder, as did Charles Burney,

This handlist is designed to show what survives of John Jenkins’ enormous output of instrumental music. Details of manuscripts and printed books and their location are given, with available information on modern editions. Vast numbers of MSS survive, many of them duplicate copies of the same pieces. They vary in quality and completeness. A brief outline of the matters relevant to the selection of the best source for any given work may therefore be useful.

The musical life of Scotland was transformed beyond recognition during the 18th century. In 1700 Scotland had been a musical backwater, supporting few professional performers and no composers whatsoever: by 1775 Edinburgh and Aberdeen could boast, between them, of several concerts a week during the winter season, and ten or twelve resident composers capable of writing orchestral music.