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Isabella d'Este and Lorenzo da Pavia, ‘master instrument-maker’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

William F. Prizer
William F. Prizer
Affiliation:
University of California at Santa Barbara
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Extract

And what shall I say of thee, O Lorenzo Gusnasco … ? Of such renown were your musical instruments, Lorenzo, that when they were for sale in the principal cities of Italy and bore the inscription of having been made by Lorenzo da Pavia the client never hesitated, no matter how excessive the price might have seemed, to spend greatly because of the excellence and authority of this most famous maker.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 2 , October 1982 , pp. 87 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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Footnotes

*

Rather different versions of this study were read at Villa I Tatti in 1977, at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society in 1978, and at the Ninth Annual Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Music in Glasgow in 1981. I am grateful to Howard Mayer Brown who answered many questions concerning the instruments discussed here, and to H. Colin Slim, who clarified several points, particularly concerning string instruments.

References

1 ‘Et de te Laurenti Gusnasche, quid dicam … ? Tanti nominis Musicalia Laurentij istius instrumenta fucre, ut si quando in principuis Italiae Civitatibus venalia forcnt, cum Laurentij Papiensis facientis inscriptionem haberent, quamquam praecium ingens esse videretur, non pigeret tamen emptorem, ob autoris famigerati autoritam excellentiamque, pecunias eflundere. De eo Mantua, apud quam in honorato sepulchro quiescit. potius quam praesens liber noster plura loquatur. Verum quia parum omnino fuissit clavicybala, clavicorda et diversa alia musicae facultatis organe esse, nisi foret etiam. qui calamorum, et cordarum ordines in certam harmonium, perfectumque concentum revocaret.’ Albonesi, A. T. degli, Introductio in chaldaicam linguam, syriacam atque armenicam, et decem alias linguas (Pavia, 1539)Google Scholar, fol. 183r–183v; repr. in C. dell'Acqua, Lorenzo Gusnasco e i Lingiardi da Pavia (Milan, 1886), pp. 11–12, 16. Brown, Clifford M. and Lorenzoni, Anna Maria have edited all the correspondence concerning Lorenzo; this is to be published as Isabella d'Este and Lorenzo da Pavia: Documents for the History of Art and Culture in Renaissance Mantua (Geneva, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

2 On Isabella as a patroness of art and letters and a collector, see some of the introductory essays in Chambers, D. S., ed., The Splendours of the Gonzaga (London, 1981)Google Scholar [Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition catalogue], as well as the literature cited throughout the present study. On Isabella as a patroness of music, see particularly Fenlon, I.. Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua (Cambridge, 1981)Google Scholar. and Prizer, W. F.. Courtly Pastimes: the Frottole of Marchetto Cara (Ann Arbor, 1980)Google Scholar.

3 On 22 February 1494 Ludovico Sforza wrote to his ambassador in Venice, mentioning that Lorenzo lived ‘in la chasa de Michele Janello [Vianello] in quclla cità [Venczia’ et e magistro de orghani’. quoted from Motta, E.. ‘Musici alla corte degli Sforza’, Archivio Storico Lombardo. 14 (1887). p. 295 nGoogle Scholar.

4 Brown, C. M. with Lorenzoni, A. M.. ‘An Art Auction in Venice in 1506’, L'arte, ser. iii. 5. nos. 18–19/20 (1972). pp. 122–3Google Scholar.

5 Letters from Lorenzo to Isabella, 3 May and 3 June 1497. Mantua. Archivio di Stato. B. Davari 3. fols. 380–381. The following abbreviations are used for documents and their sources throughout this study:

Unless otherwise noted, all documents come from the Archivio Gonzaga of the Archivio di Stato, Mantua. The correspondence from Venice for the year 1497 (B. 1437) has been damaged irreparably by moisture and mould; accordingly, the letters of Lorenzo for this year are not available. Luckily the nineteenth-century Mantuan historian Willelmo Braghirolli transcribed many of Lorenzo's letters for this year, and his copies are in the Archivio di Stato. B. Davari 3. All citations of Lorenzo's letters of 1497 are therefore from Braghirolli's transcriptions.

6 Appendix, Document 1. The sixteen letters quoted at length in this study are included in their original versions (see pp. 121–7).

7 Letters from Lorenzo to Isabella, 6 March 1510 (B. 1444) and 7 March 1514 (B. 1449); the latter is published in dell'Acqua, Lorenzo Gusnasco, p. 20.

8 All these items are mentioned in the correspondence between Isabella and Lorenzo; see Brown and Lorenzoni. Isabella d'Este and Lorenzo da Pavia.

9 Ibid.

10 On Lorenzo's relations with Manutius, see Appendix, Document 7; Baschet, A., Aldo Manuzio, lettres el documents (Venice, 1867)Google Scholar; and Luzio, A. and Renier, R., ‘La coltura e le relazioni letterarie di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, part i: 'La coltura’, Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, 33 (1899) pp. 16–21Google Scholar.

11 See Brown, C. M., ‘New Documents Concerning Andrea Mantegna and a Note Regarding “Jeronimus de Conradis pictor”’, Burlington Magazine, 111 (1969), 541–2Google Scholar.

12 See Appendix, Document 7.

13 Appendix, Document 2: published in Luzio, A.. ‘Isabella d'Este e Giulio II’, Rivista d'ltalia 12 (1909), pp. 861–2Google Scholar.

14 On Isabella's patronage see note 2 above, I am currently preparing a study entitled ‘Isabella d'Este as a Patroness of Music’, to be published in Renaissance Music Patronage, ed. Kellman, H. (London, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

15 See, for example, Brown, C. M. and Lorenzoni, A. M., ‘Isabella d'Este e Giorgio Brognolo nell'anno 1496’, Atti e Memorie della Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova, new ser., 41 (1973), pp. 97–122Google Scholar.

16 The decree of 13 February 1515, giving Lorenzo and his family Mantuan citizenship, is included in L. D. no. 34, fol. 61v.

17 In his will Lorenzo left a vase to Isabella and 30 ducats to Gerolamo Gataldi, Francesco Gonzaga's organist. Gataldi was in Mantua by 24 July 1514, when Frederico Gonzaga asked him to come to San Benedetto in Polirone to play for him (B. 2920, L. 229, fol. 66r). He died before 26 July 1522, when his daughter Margarita was named in litigation (L. M. no. 22, fol. 52r). Lorenzo's will is extant in two copies: Arc. Not., Est. Not., anno 1517, fol. 143v; and Arc Not., Notaio Montifiori, B. 852. The day and month in which the will was made are included only in the latter copy.

18 ‘Vogli operar di farli haver da lo medem[o] fratello dil gia Mastro Lorenzo da Pavia la receta di quella colla che il prefato Mastro Lorenzo adoperava ad incollare li instrumenti che lui faceva et anchor quella altra che adoperava in incollare le cane de li organi.’ (B.1246) On 17 November Isabella answered, sending Musti both types of glue, ‘quella più biancha’ for instruments and ‘j'altra piú scura’ for organ pipes (B. 2997, L. 34, fol. 93r). Stemming from Bertolotti, A., Musici alla corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal secolo XV al XVIII (Milan, 1890; repr. 1978), p. 31Google Scholar, scholars have believed that Lorenzo was dead by 4 May 1517, when Isabella wrote to Andrea Coscia thanking him for ‘la certezza datami de la morte di M[aest]ro Lorenzo’ (B. 2997, L. 34, fols. 49r–49v). This transcription is faulty in that the word ‘M[aest]ro’ should be ‘M[agnifi]co’. In fact, Coscia wrote to Isabella the previous day (B. 746), referring to ‘la morte del Magnifico’. This cannot be Lorenzo, both because he was never called ‘Magnifico’ and because he was still alive on 19 May. It seems more likely that Coscia was referring to Lorenzo de' Medici (1492–1519), grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was wounded in battle on 26 March 1517 and who was thought at first to have died from the wound; see Pastor, L., Storia dei papi, iv/1, ed. and trans. Mercati, A. (Rome, 1908), p. 108Google Scholar.

19 Ricordi di Monsignor Sabba da Castiglione (Venice, 1560 [first published 1546])Google Scholar, fol. 56v.

20 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Sezione di Urbino, Cl. i, Div. G, Filza 265, fol. 24r–24v; published in Prizer, , Courtly Pastimes, Document 125, pp. 312–13Google Scholar.

21 See B. 2997, L. 35, fol. 61r–61v; published in Prizer, . Courtly Pastimes. Document 120. p. 308Google Scholar.

22 Isabella is referring here cither to her trip to Milan and Pavia of 1491 for Beatrice's wedding, or else to a trip in 1495 for the birth of Francesco Sforza, Beatrice's second son. Of the two trips, the second seems more likely, for it would be difficult to account for her not having ordered instruments from Lorenzo for five years after having seen her sister's clavichord.

23 Appendix, Document 3; published in Magenta, C.. I Visconti e gli Sforza nel Castello di Pavia (Milan, 1883). i, p. 540 nGoogle Scholar.; and Luzio, A. and Renier, R.. ‘Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Ludovico e Beatrice Sforza’. Archhio Storico Lombardo, 17 (1890). p. 636Google Scholar.

24 B. 2992, L. 6, fols. 54v–55r (Isabella refers to Lorenzo as ‘intarsiatore et maestro da instrument musici’); published in Brown and Lorenzom, ‘Isabella d'Este e Giorgio Brognolo’, p. 101.

25 B. 1436, fol. 82; published in Brown and Lorenzom. ‘Isabella d'Este e Giorgio Brognolo’, p. 102.

26 B. 2992, L. 6, fol. 62r: published in Luzio and Renier. ‘Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, p. 637.

27 ‘Ricordando però a quella, el mio che se fa per dicto Magistro Laurentio e d'uno stanpo che non piacerà ala Signoria Vostra, nè ad altri, la fantasia io gli l'ho data, et el bisogno de quella saria fosse simille a quello de la Illustrissima Duchessa de Milano.’ 20 March 1496 (B. 1234, fol. 534).

28 ‘sarà delicatissimo da sonare con li tasti un pocho più stretti de li altri, acomodati a le vostre delicatissime mane.’ 29 August 1496 (B. 1436. fol. 351).

29 The braccio mercantile mantovano was equal to 0.637973 m; figures taken from Martini, A., Manuale di metrologia, ossia misure, pesi e monete (Turin, 1883 repr. 1976), p. 336Google Scholar.

30 Appendix, Document 4.

31 See letter from Isabella to Giorgio Brognolo in Venice, 25 December 1496 (B. 2992, L. 8, fols. 42r–42v); partially published in Luzio and Renier, ‘Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, p. 637; and Brown and Lorenzoni, ‘Isabella d'Este e Giorgio Brognolo’, p. 117.

32 See letter from Girolamo Bruno to Isabella, 22 May 1494 (B. 1233).

33 Girolamo da Sestola was a musician in Ferrarese employ and was music teacher to Isabella, probably for keyboard instruments. On Girolamo, also known as ‘Il Coglia’, see Lockwood, L., ‘Josquin at Ferrara: New Documents and Letters’, in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Lowinsky, E. with Blackburn, B. J. (London, 1976), pp. 110–14Google Scholar.

34 Appendix, Document 5.

35 See Valdrighi, L.-F.. Nomocheliurgografia antica e moderna (Modena, 1884–1895; repr. 1967). pp. 3, 45, 109, 249–55Google Scholar.

36 Brognolo wrote to Isabella on 5 November 1490, saying that he was sending five sheets of green cypress because he could not find dry ones (B. 1433, fol. 58).

37 Letters from Lorenzo to Isabella of 17 September 1505 (B. 1891, fol. 81) and 8 December 1505 (B. 1891, fol. 83).

38 Appendix, Document 6; partially published in d'Ancona, A., Origini del teatro italiano (2nd edn, Turin, 1891), ii, p. 394 nGoogle Scholar.; and Luzio, A. and Renier, R., ‘La coltura e le relazioni letterarie di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, part iii: ‘Gruppo ferrarese’, Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, 35 (1900), p. 208Google Scholar. The piede veneziano was equal to approximately 0.34775 m, and the document therefore describes the harpsichord as being around 2.78 m, much too large for known Italian harpsichords of the period; see Martini, , Manuale di metrologia, p. 817Google Scholar. Either there were exceedingly long instruments of which there are no extant examples, or else Bernardino's pen slipped in his description of Lorenzo's instrument.

39 B. 2993, L. 11, fol. 8r–8v.

40 Letter of 21 December 1499 (B. 2993, L. 11, fol. 15v).

41 Letter of 31 July 1501 (B. 2993, L. 12, fol. 74r); partially published in Luzio and Renier. ‘Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, p. 638; dell' Acqua, , Lorenzo Gusnasco. p. 20Google Scholar; and Davari, S., ‘Notizie di fabbricatori d'organi e d'altri istrumenti, liuti, viole ecc., in ispecie pel Maestro Sebastiano Napolitano “dall'Organo” autore dell'organo d'alabastro, e di Maestro Vincenzo Bolcione, fabbricatore d'organi a Firenze’, ed. Lorenzoni, A. M. and Brown, C. M., Atti e Memorie delta Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova, new ser., 43 (1975), pp. 43–4Google Scholar.

42 Appendix, Document 7. Gian Cristoforo Romano was a sculptor, medallist and architect who worked for both Isabella and the Sforza; see Venturi, A., ‘Gian Cristoforo Romano’, Archivio Storico detl'Arte, 1 (1888), pp. 49–59, 107–18, 148–58Google Scholar.

43 The sale of Vianello's collection has been treated exhaustively in Brown with Lorenzoni, ‘An Art Auction in Venice’, pp. 121–36.

44 Isabella seems to have been uninterested in the harpsichord, which was eventually purchased by Francesco Cornaro for 82 ducats; see letter from Lorenzo to Isabella. 3 June 1506 (B. 1891, fol. 306).

45 Letter to Isabella (B. 1891, fol. 304).

46 Letter from Lorenzo to Isabella, 3 June 1506 (B. 1891, fol. 306). On 13 May 1506 Giovanni Francesco Valier announced the sale to Isabella, saying that the ‘quadro del pharaone et dell'organo de cartha et altro’ were to be included (B. 1441, fol. 427).

47 For further information on the technical details of the Correr organ, see Haraszti, E., ‘Á propos de l'orgue de Mathias Corvin du Musée Correr à Venise’, L'Orgue, 21 (01–03, 1948), pp. 7–17Google Scholar; Cervelli, L., ‘Un prezioso organo del '400: alia ricerca della sua voce perduta’, Bollettino dei Musei Civici Vemziani, 14, no. 4 (1969). pp. 21–36Google Scholar; Tiella, M., ‘L'organo di Lorenzo da Pavia’, Bollettino dei Musei Civici Vemziani. 17. nos. 1–2 (1972), pp. 27–49Google Scholar; and Tiella, , ‘The Positive Organ of Lorenzo da Pavia (1494)’. Organ Yearbook, 7 (1976), pp. 4–15Google Scholar.

48 See Cervelli, ‘Un prezioso organo’, pp. 22–3.

49 ‘Et oltre a ciò [noi Veneziani] habbiamo diversi studi di musica con stromenti et libri di molta eccellenza, de quali è notando lo studio del Cavalier Sanuto … et lo studio del predetto Catarin Zeno, nel quale, fra l'altre cose, si vede un'organo che fu di Matthias Re di Ungaria, tanto harmonico et perfetto che non si uscisse mai di quella famiglia.’ Venetia città nobilissima et singolare (Venice, 1581)Google Scholar, fol. 138v It is obvious, however, that this organ could not have been made for Mattias Corvinus, who died four years before Lorenzo built the instrument. Nonetheless, it is possible that the instrument belonged to Beatrice d'Aragona, wife of Mattias and Queen of Hungary, who did not die until 1509. On this point see Haraszti, ‘À propos de l'orgue’, pp. 13–14.

50 Brown with Lorenzoni, ‘An Art Auction in Venice’, p. 124.

51 Müntz, E., Les collections des Médicis au XVe siècle (Paris, 1888), p. 58Google Scholar.

52 See Cervelli, ‘Un prezioso organo’, pp. 26–7.

53 Russel, R., Victoria and Albert Museum: Catalogue of Musical Instruments, i: Keyboard Instruments (London, 1968), item 46, pp. 67–8Google Scholar.

54 ‘Rari sono li Organi fabricati con canne di carta per la troppa difficoltà, che vi è nel formarli, ed anco per conservarli. E in vero l'invenzion e il fine di chi opera in questa maniera non è per altro, che per formare istrumenti dolci, anzi dolcissimi, e di poca voce, e questi servono più da camera … poiche da chiesa sono troppo dolci.’ Quoted from Lunelli, R., ‘Un trattatello di Antonio Barcotto colma le lacune dell'“Arte organica”’, Collectanea Historiae Musicae, 1 (1953), p. 149Google Scholar.

55 Letter from Lorenzo to Isabella, 25 April 1501 (B. 1439, fol. 309r).

56 ‘Averete auto el fiore de lc cose de Messer Michele, mancava l'organo. ma lo teneno in gran reputacione: dicano ano trovato tricento ducati. Antonio da Ferara è a Venecia, credo sia per questo.’ (B. 1891. fol. 310)

57 Isabella wrote to her husband from Ferrara on 3 May 1503 that ‘Il luni il prefato Signore mio patre, subito ch'io hebbi mangiato, fo ale stantie mie et vuolse ch'io sentisse sonare de clavicembalo Vincentio da Modena. quale a quisti di fo ale prove cum Antonio da l'Organo da Ferrara. Et parseme vedere tanta velocità in lui cum li pedali ch'io ne remassi meravigliata, et in questo havere perfectione assai.’ (B. 2115) For Antonio as organist of the Ferrarese cappella until its dissolution in 1510. see Prizer, W. F.. ‘La cappella di Francesco ii Gonzaga e la musica sacra a Mantova nel primo ventennio del Cinquecento’. Mantova e i Gonzaga nella civiltà del Rinascimento (Verona, 1977), p. 268Google Scholar; and Prizer, . Courtly Pastimes, pp. 14–15, and 171 n. 47Google Scholar.

58 Appendix, Document 8.

59 ‘Se l'organo vale quelli dinari che scriveti et sij de quella bontà et excellentia chc l'era quando le vedessimo in casa de Vivianello, seremo contente di tuorlo, ma ni era dicto che l'era mancato di bontà et guasto. che quando vissi fusse et non si potesse acconciare. non faressimo la spesa. et perhò ne remettemo al judicio vostro.’ (B. 2994. L. 19. fols. 92v–93r)

60 Appendix, Document 9.

61 Woodfield, I.. ‘The Early History of the Viol’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 103 (1976–1977), pp. 141–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am indebted to Dr Woodfield, who shared his views on the viol and vihuela in a long correspondence and who very kindly examined my list of names for instruments.

62 ‘Heri anche il prefato Duca de Bari gli condusse Madama et tuta la turba. c poi se presono a fare sonare quelli sonadori spagnoli che mandò el Reverendissimo Monsignore Ascanio da Roma, qualj soano viole grande quasi come mj; et invero il sonare suo è più presto dolce che de multa arte’. (B. 1630, fols. 183–184); partially published in Canal, P., ‘Delia musica in Mantova’, Memorie del R. Istiluto Veneto di Science, Lettere ed Arti, 21 (1879), pp. 669–70 (repr. 1978)Google Scholar; and in Woodfield, ‘The Early History of the Viol’, p. 144 n.

63 Woodfield, I., ‘The Origins of the Viol’ (Ph.D. thesis, King's College, University of London, 1977), i, p. 155Google Scholar. Costa's painting is reproduced in, among other places, Eustachio Romano, Musica duorum, Rome, 1521, ed. from the literary estate of David, Hans T. by H. M. Brown and E. E. Lowinsky, Monuments of Renaissance Music 6 (Chicago and London, 1975), pl, xiii, p. 109Google Scholar: a detail of the viols is included in Woodfield. ‘The Early History of the Viol’, pl. 10, p. 154.

64 Letter from Nìgro to Isabella, 7 May 1495 (B. 1599).

65 Appendix, Document 11. On Testagrossa's biography see Prizer, W. F., ‘Lutenists at the Court of Mantua in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’, Journal of the Lute Society of America, 13 (1980), pp. 9–12Google Scholar.

66 Letter of 22 August 1499 (B. 2993, L.10, fol. 4 1r).

67 Appendix, Document 10; published in Bertolotti, , Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga, pp. 28–9Google Scholar. Kämper, Dietrich (La musica strumentale ml rinascimento (Turin, 1976; rev. Italian edn of Studien zur instrumentalen Ensemblemusik des 16. Jahrhunderts in Italien, Analecta Musicologica, 10 (1970)), p. 45)Google Scholar, errs in his interpretation of this letter from Bertolotti: ‘Joan Angelo’ was not the maker of the viols, he was Testagrossa, who had them made.

68 Regola rubertina: regola che insegna sonar de viola d'archo tastada (Venice, 1542)Google Scholar; and Ganassi, , Leltione seconda pur della prattica di sonare il violone d'arco da tasti (Venice, 1543)Google Scholar.

69 Appendix. Document 11.

70 Appendix, Document 12.

71 ‘L'è qua a Venecia el Signore Don Alfonso, al quale vole li faci 5 viole da archo. e con grandissima instancia. Non me vale a dire che io non le posso fare, e'l vole a tuti i modi del mondo che li faci. I.a sua Signoria vole imparare’. (B. 1438. fol. 614)

72 ‘Al 3°. acto veneuna musica de sei viole. assaibona, fra quale vi era il signor don Alfonso’. I diarii di Marino Sanuto. iv. ed. Barozzi, X. (Venice, 1880), col. 230Google Scholar.

73 ‘Havemo ben dato principio ad imparare de viola et speramo che impareremo assai bene perchè in dui dì solamente che gli havemo dato opera, cominciamo a fare dele minute per modo che, quando veniremo a Ferrara, potremo fare tenore alo Illustrissimo Signor Don Alphonso nostro fratello’. (B. 2993, L. 10, fol. 15V)

74 Isabella wrote to Galeotto del Carretto at Casale Monferrato on 23 August 1499: ‘Per el studio che usamo in havere bone viole dopo che havemo principiato ad imparare a sonarle, el [Bartolomeo] Tromboncino ne ha dicto haverne visto tre perfectissime del Signore Constantino [Paleologo], quale, per non essere da sua Signoria operate, se rende certo ne le donaria volentieri’. (B. 2993, L. 10, fol. 42r) On the same day, Alfonso d'Este wrote to Isabella to say that he was sending his musician Michele Piffaro to her with the ‘viole’ that she had requested (B. 1187).

75 See, for example, Winternitz, E., ‘The Iconology of Music: Potentials and Pitfalls’, Perspectives in Musicology, ed. Brook, B. S., Downes, E. O. D., and Van Solkema, S. (New York, 1972), p. 80Google Scholar. For further on the problems of terminology of string instruments, see Woodfield, , ‘The Origins of the Viol’, i, pp. 159–70Google Scholar. A typically vexing example of this vagueness in terminology is Milano's, Francesco da Libra prime and Libra Secondo de lafortuna (Naples, 1536; facs. repr. 1977)Google Scholar. These two recently discovered volumes (reported on in Martinez-Gollner, M. L., ‘Die Augsburger Bibliothek Herwart und ilire Lautentabulaturen’, Forties Artis Musicae, 16 (1969), p. 44Google Scholar; and Giraud, Y., ‘Deux livresde tablature inconnusde Francesco da Milano’, Revue de Musicologie, 55 (1969), pp. 217–19)CrossRefGoogle Scholar bear the title Intaiolatura de viola oiero iauto. One is immediately tempted to agree with Fallows, David (‘15th-century Tablatures for Plucked Instruments: a Summary, a Revision and a Suggestion’, Lute Society Journal, 19 (1977), p. 25)Google Scholar, that this is a plucked viola, that is, a vihuela de mano. On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the instrument was the viola da gamba. since the viol was written for in tablature (see, for example, Ganassi, Regola rubertina), and since Francesco da Milano himself may have been a viol player (see Slim, H. Colin, ‘Francesco da Milano (1474–1543–4): a Bio-Bibliographical Study’, i [biography], Musica Disaplina, 18 (1964), p. 82Google Scholar, and pl. ii, after p. 82). For further on the vihuela, see below, pp. 109–12.

76 Not 1505, as suggested in Reese, G., ‘Musical Compositions in Renaissance Intarsia’, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Durham, North Carolina, 1968), p. 81Google Scholar. The correspondence documenting the execution of these panels is published in Bertolotti, A., Arti minori alia corte di Mantova nei secoli xv, xvi e xvii (Milan, 1889; repr. 1974), pp. 171–2Google Scholar.

77 Reproductions of the Leombruno painting are included in Marani, E. and others, eds., Mantova, le arti n/2 (Mantua, 1961), pl. 332Google Scholar; and Gallico, C., Un libro di poesieper musica a I'epoca d'Isabella d'Este (Mantua, 1961). facing p. 97Google Scholar. Reproductions of the maiolica plates are included in Wallen, B., ‘A Majolica Panel in the Widener Collection’, Report and Studies (Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1968), figure 12, p. 104Google Scholar; Szabo, G., The Robert Lehman Collection, a Guide (New York, 1975)Google Scholar [Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, exhibition catalogue], figure 151; and Mallet, J. V. G., ‘Mantua and Urbino: Gonzaga Patronage of Maiolica’, Apollo, 194, new ser., no. 235 (09 1981), p. 163, pl. ivGoogle Scholar.

78 Costa's paintings are reproduced in, among other places, Verheyen, E., The Paintings in the ‘Studiolo’ of Isabella d'Este at Mantua (New York, 1971), pll. 27–36Google Scholar; and Le studiolo d'Isabelle d'Este, Musee du Louvre: Les Dossiers du Departement des Peintures 10 (Paris, 1975), pp. 45, 48Google Scholar.

79 On ‘citharedo’ as a general term, see Smith, D. A., ‘On the Origin of the Chitarrone’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 32 (1979), p. 445CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Wright, L., ‘The Medieval Gittern and Citole: a Case of Mistaken Identity’, Galpin Society Journal, 30 (1977), p. 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where the equivalent Latin term ‘citharista’ is used for general references to players of all string instruments.

80 The three letters are all included in B. 2991, L. 3, fol. 69r. The letters to Salimbene and Atalante are partially published in Bertolotti, , Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga, p. 15Google Scholar.

81 Isabella's letters to Niccolo da Correggio are not extant. They are not in her copialettere, nor are they, as sometimes occurs, in Francesco's, copialettere, where, however, there is a lacuna from 8 04 to 10 07 1493Google Scholar.

82 Appendix, Document 13; published in Luzio, A. and Renier, R., ‘Niccolo da Correggio’, Giornale Storico delta Letteratura Italiana, 21 (1893). pp. 247–8Google Scholar.

83 See the letter from Francesco Gonzaga to Piero de: Medici of 31 October 1491, requesting Atalante's services (B. 2903, L. 133, fol. 85r); published in Tedeschi, E., ‘La “Rappresentatione d'Orfeo” e la “‘Tragedia d'Orfeo”’, Atti e Memorie delta Accademia Virigiliana di Mantova, new ser., 17–18 (1924–1925). p. 69Google Scholar. See also the letter from Antimaco to Francesco of 18 May 1491, stating the need for Atalante to perform the work (B. 2440); partially published in d'Ancona, , Origini del teatro italiano, n, p. 263Google Scholar.

84 ‘Fu … rarosonatoredi lira, efu maestro diquellad'Atalante Migliorotti’. From Florence. Biblioteca azionale Centrale, MS Magi, xvii, 17, probably copied between 1541 and 1547; quoted from Ficarra, A., L'anonimo magliabecchiano (Naples, 1968), p. 119Google Scholar.

85 ‘Col mio debile ingegno. introduco nuovo. inaudito et inusitato modo di sonare, con nuova et inusitata forma di lyra, con cio sia cosa io adgiunga corde al compimento al numero di XII, parte nel suo tempo oportuno dal piede, et parte dalla mano tastabili in perfecta et consummate consonantia’. 25 August 1505 (B. 1105, fol. 610) I am indebted to David Nutter for his aid in the interpretation of this letter. On the generally accepted, later date for the invention of the lira da gamba, see Munrow, D., Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (London, 1976), p. 89Google Scholar, where the date 1550 is suggested. Brown, Howard Mayer (Sixteenth-century instrumentation: the Music for the Florentine Intermedii) (Rome, 1973). p. 46Google Scholar suggests a date before 1565.

86 Isabella may have ordered the lute at Christmas, when Lorenzo was in Mantua; see p. 94 above.

87 Appendix. Document 14; published in Braghirolli, W., Lettere inedite di artisti del secolo xv cavate dall'Archivio Gonzaga (Mantua, 1878), pp. 26–7Google Scholar.

88 ‘[Mando] el liuto picolo per lo Illustrisimo Signore Fedencho. E' cercato con ogni dilegencia, sichè ho trovato uno bono e belo; costa ducati 2 e mezo con tuti.’ (B. 1891. fol. 325) Isabella received the lute the same day and immediately wrote to ask Lorenzo for another for Leonora (letter of 29 November 1506; B. 2994. L. 19. fol. 98r).

89 Tyler, James (The Early Guitar: a History and Handbook (London, 1980), pp. 18–19)Google Scholar is equivocal in identification of the instrument, stating that ‘it is difficult to see whether the instrument has four or five courses’. I have examined the intarsia in situ and can state napoli unequivocally that the instrument has eleven peg-holes. It therefore has six courses and is a vihuela de mano.

90 Woodfield, ‘The Early History of the Viol’, pp. 143–4.

91 B. 1801; published in Prizer, ‘Lutenists at the Court of Mantua’, p. 32. Document 1.

92 Modena, Archivio di Stato, Registro d'Amministrazione of Cardinal Ippolito I d'Este for 1511, fol. 245r; partially published in Valdrighi, , Nomocheliurgografia, p. 254Google Scholar.

93 See letter from Lorenzo to Isabella, November 1509 (no day given on letter): ‘O' fato una belisima viola ala spagnola. E' bona con una casa molto bela, la quale ò fato per la Illustrissima Madona Lionora, Duchesa d'Orbin.’ (B. 1443)

94 The exception is found in a letter from Francesco Comparini to Isabella, dated Esztergom, 15 May 1497, and is an equivocal reference, speaking of ‘viole’ in Hungarian fashion which can be altered to make them in Neopolitan fashion: ‘Io ve mando doy viole facte a l'o[n]- garesca; a me parono bone de sono: non sonjo lavorate ala napoletana. Io credo che le cose non partengano bone, Vostra Signoria le farra mutare.’ (B. 533)

95 B. 2992, L. 8, fol. 86r; published in Prizer, ‘Lutenists at the Court of Mantua’, p. 33, Document 4.

96 Appendix, Document 15.

97 ‘Habiati advertentia ad fare el corpo tutto alia spagnola, senza dargli niente del italiano…vogliati puramente condurlo alia spagnola, non lo bastardandolo in parte alcuna.’ (B. 2993, L. 11, fol. 12r)

98 Appendix, Document 1; an English translation of this letter is published in Brown with Lorenzoni, ‘An Art Auction in Venice’, pp. 121–2. Professor Brown, however, mistranscribed the word ‘vose’ in the phrase ‘naturale de la vose’ as ‘nose’ (= ‘noce’, ‘walnut’). Anna Maria Lorenzoni, Professor Brown's co-author, informs me that this word will be changed to ‘vose’ in their forthcoming Isabella d'Este and Lorenzo da Pavia.

99 Letter of 18 September 1500 (B. 1439, fol. 55).

100 On this group see W. F. Prizer, ‘Bernardino Piffaro e i pifferi e tromboni di Mantova’, Rivista Italiana di Muskologia (forthcoming).

101 On 9 October 1518 Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa wrote to Federico Gonzaga asking to be readmitted to Mantuan service and offering wind and string instruments (B. 746; published in Prizer, , Courtly Pastimes, Document 122, pp. 309–11)Google Scholar. Federico wrote to Statio Gadio on 15 October that Isabella had decided to take the instruments for Francesco (B. 2925, L. 254, fols. 37r–38r).

102 Lorenzo's description of the lute is not included in Braghirolli's transcription, the only extant source of the letter. Isabella's answer to this letter, however, is extant, and in it she agrees that the cost of ebony would be too much for ‘uno manico solo’. See note 104 below for this letter.

103 Appendix, Document 16. According to Martini, Manuale di metrologia, the quarta, was equal to a quarter of the braccio mercantile veneziano, which in turn equalled 0.638721 m.

104 ‘Circa ala parte de quello osso, non se impazando nui de fiautti: non ne pare che lo togliati.’ (B. 2992, L. 8, fol. 98v).

105 Castiglione, B., Il libro del cortegiano, Book ii; ed. Maier, B. (Turin, 1964), pp. 208–10Google Scholar. See Singleton, C. S. trans., The Book of the Courtier (Garden City, New York, 1959), p. 105Google Scholar; and Winternitz, E., ‘The Knowledge of Musical Instruments as an Aid to the Art Historian’, Musical Instruments and their Symbolism in Western Art (2nd edn, New Haven, 1979), p. 53Google Scholar. Winternitz misinterprets the succeeding passage; in it, Castiglione is speaking not of wind instruments to be played before ladies, as Winternitz would have it, but rather of keyboard and string instruments, which are mentioned just before the passage quoted by Winternitz.

106 See Bowles, E., ‘La hiérarchie des instruments de musique dans l'Europe féodale’, Revue de Musicologie, 42 (1958), pp. 155–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the literature cited in note 108 below.

107 See Prizer, ‘Bernardino Piffaro’.

108 See Egan, P., ‘Poesia and the Fecrirc;te Champitre’, Art Bulletin, 41 (1959), pp. 303–13Google Scholar; Kettering, A. McNeil, ‘Rembrandt's Flute Player, a Unique Treatment of Pastoral’, Simiolus, 9 (1977), p. 33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Winternitz, ‘The Knowledge of Musical Instruments’, pp. 48–53.

109 See Winternitz, , ‘The Curse of Pallas Athena’, Musical Instruments and their Symbolism, pp. 150–65Google Scholar.

110 On Isabella's education see Luzio, A., I precettori d'Isabella d'Este (Ancona, 1887)Google Scholar.

111 On Isabella's interest in antiquities see Brown, C. M., ‘ “Lo insaciabile desiderio nostro de cose antique”: New Documents on Isabella d'Este's Collection of Antiquities’, Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance: Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. Clough, C. H. (New York, 1976), pp. 324–53, 497Google Scholar.

112 Metamorphoses, Books vi and xi. In the inventory of Isabella's books made after her death is listed the ‘Metamorphosis de Ovidio in ottava coperto da coramo negro indorato’ (B. 400, packet 1542–59); published in Luzio, A. and Renier, R., ‘La coltura e le relazioni letterarie di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga’, Appendix i: ‘Inventarii di libri’, Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, 42 (1903), p. 81Google Scholar, item 117. See also pp. 89, 96, above.

113 See note 77 above.

114 See note 77 above.

115 On Isabella as the higher Venus in this painting, see the poem by Battista Fiera, Mantuan physician and humanist, beginning ‘Formosam Venerem noster tibi pinxit Apelles/Ettantum Formam pinxit Elisa tuam’; published in Battisti, E., ‘Il Mantegna e la letteratura classica’, Arte, pensiero e cultura a Mantova nel primo rinascimento in rapporto con la Toscana e con il Veneto: Atti del VI convengno internazionale di studi sul Rinascimentoz (Florence, 1965), pp. 42–3Google Scholar.

116 On this painting see Lehmann, P. Williams, ‘The Sources and Meaning of Mantegna's Parnassus’, Lehmann, P. Williams and Lehmann, K., Samothracian Reflections: Aspects of the Revival of the Antique, Bollingen Series 92 (Princeton, 1973), pp. 57–178Google Scholar.

117 On this cycle see the literature cited in note 78 above.

118 See Verheyen, , The Paintings in the ‘Studiolo’, pp. 15–29Google Scholar.

119 ‘Ma advertite a farlo de tale grandeza che quando sia acordato che'l habia due voce più alte che non ha la viola che facesti, la quale alia voce nostra è pur un poco bassetta.’ 4 July 1497 (B. 2992, L. 8, fol. 86r); partially published in Luzio, A. and Renier, R., Mantova e Urbino: Isabella d'Este ed Elisabetta Gonzaga (Turin, 1893; repr. 1976), p. 92Google Scholar.

120 See, for example, Appendix, Documents 8, 14.

121 ‘Averebe bene a caro a sapere se la Signoria Vostra il piace che meta una stela d'avolio in su el manicho de dito liuto, perchè l'ebano e l'avolio sono dove [that is, due] bele compagnie insieme.’ Letter of 1497, no further date, but probably shortly before 16 November, the date of Isabella's response (B. Davari 3, fol. 385).

122 ‘Aviso quella como ancora non l'ò taiato perchè ò ateso a fare la forma del liuto. Così l'ò finita, è fato el pù belo sesto [that is, ‘formal’] c'abia maie visto. Perchè ne la forma sta el tuto … crediate che faro il pu belo liuto che sia stato maie, e bono.’ 14 October 1497 (B. Davari 3, fol. 384) The ellipsis is included in Braghirolli's transcription.

123 Appendix, Document 9.

124 ‘Se non trovati hebano da fare la viola, toleti pur sandalo perchè, anchora che'l perdi presto el colore, pur rimane quasi dil colore de hebano et ne piace a quello modo.' 29 November 1506 (B. 2994, L. 19, fol. 98r)

125 Appendix, Document 3.

126 See p. 107 above.

127 On Narciso de' Mainardi see Prizer, , Courtly Pastimes, p. 8Google Scholar.

128 ‘Prego Vostra Signoria che me voglia acomodare de uno de soi liutti che havea l'altro di Narciso finch'io sia ritornata, perchè li mei non soni boni.’ 23 March 1494 (B. 2109, fol. 180)

129 See Prizer, ‘Lutenists at the Court of Mantua’, pp. 17–18.

130 This occasion was Isabella's order in 1499 to the Brescian maker for a viol to match three other viols, which were already made in 1495. before her first request to Lorenzo; see pp. 102–4 above.

131 Punctuation, capitalisation, and diacritical marks have been added and abbreviations realised by the author, both in the Appendix and throughout this study. For the meaning of the sigla used in sources, see note 5 above. I should like to thank Dottoressa Adele Bellù and the staff of the Archivio di Stato, Mantua, particularly Dottor Roberto Navarrini, now Director of the Archivio di Stato in Brescia, who photographed Figure 3, and Signorina Anna Maria Lorenzoni, who not only checked my transcriptions of the documents in this Appendix, but also helped many times to decipher the often nearly illegible hand of Lorenzo da Pavia.