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Sixteenth-century patronage at St Mark's, Venice*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Giulio Ongaro
Giulio Ongaro
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
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Extract

The chapel of St Mark's in Venice occupied a prominent place in the musical life of most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so that a Venetian writer could justly remark: ‘The chapel of these Lords is thought to be among the best in the world, and [singers] have come to serve from France and Spain.’ Yet, in spite of its importance in the history of Western music, our knowledge of its development and organisation is far from complete and contains large gaps. It will suffice to point out that we know a lot more about the Gabrielis – organists – than we do about Zarlino in his capacity as maestro and composer, that the first modern study of the chapel, barely eight years old, is the recent Vespers at St Mark's by James Moore, and that the venerable Storia della musica sacra nella già cappella ducale di S. Marco in Venezia by Francesco Caffi, the only comprehensive study of the subject, has, in default of more modern work, been reprinted several times in recent years. The situation is gradually improving, with several new studies on music in Venice and at St Mark's already available or in preparation, but one of the issues not yet treated adequately is the question of patronage at St Mark's and of the social and economic status of its singers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 8 , October 1988 , pp. 81 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 Doglioni, , Le cose notabili et maravigliose della città di Venezia (Venice, 1655), p. 74Google Scholar.

2 Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981.

3 The latest reprint of the original 1854 edition (Florence, 1987) has been updated with bibliographical references to 1984 by Elvidio Surian.

4 Limiting myself to dissertations I can cite Glixon, J.'s ‘Music at the Venetian Scuole Grandi, 1440–1540’ (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1979)Google Scholar; Bryant, D.'s ‘Liturgy, Ceremonial and Sacred Music in Venice at the Time of the Counter-Reformation’ (Ph.D. diss., King's College, University of London, 1981)Google Scholar; my dissertation ‘The Chapel of St Mark's at the time of Adrian Willaert (1527–1562)’ (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986)Google Scholar; Feldman, M.'s ‘Venice and the Madrigal in the Mid-sixteenth Century’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1987)Google Scholar; and other dissertations in progress, for instance by Rebecca Edwards of Princeton University on the life of Merulo, which will include much material on Venetian musical life during Merulo's tenure as organist at St Mark's.

5 See e.g. Reynolds, C., ‘Musical Careers, Ecclesiastical Benefices, and the Example of Johannes Brunet’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 37 (1984), on pp. 89–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See da Mosto, A., I Dogi di Venezia nella vita pubblica e privata (Florence, 1977), pp. 235–46Google Scholar.

7 This point of view is argued convincingly by Finlay, R. in his Politics in Renaissance Venice (New Brunswick, N.J., 1980)Google Scholar.

8 The sestieri (which divide Venice in six parts) are San Marco, Castello and Cannaregio on St Mark's side, and Dorsoduro, San Polo (= Paolo) and Santa Croce on the other.

9 The decree concerning the cappella piccola was copied in Venice, Archivio di Stato (I-Vas), Procuratori di San Marco de Supra (henceforth PSM), Reg. 129, fol. 135v; the original is in I-Vas, Collegio, Notatorio, Reg. 33, fol. 177r. The dignity of the office was somewhat diminished in the sixteenth century by the sale of additional procuratorships (for sums up to 100,000 ducats) in times of financial need, beginning with the war of the League of Cambrai, so that at one point there were about forty procuratori. Perhaps as a result of these measures the office was plagued later in the century by scandals and charges of mismanagement of funds, chiefly of the funds left in trust to the procuratori in Venetian wills. For general information on the procuratori and other Venetian officials, see da Mosto, A., L'Archivio di Stato di Venezia (Rome, 1937)Google Scholar. One example of the later corruption of the procuratori is cited in Pullan, B., Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), p. 353Google Scholar.

10 The use of the word ‘coro’ in his title has sometimes created confusion among modern scholars, who have attributed documents concerning the responsibilities of this official to the maestro di cappella (see, for instance, Caffi, , Storia della musica, i, p. 66)Google Scholar. The documents are usually clear in distinguishing between ‘coro’ and ‘cappella’.

11 This office was the exact counterpart of the punctator of the Sistine chapel (see ‘I “Diarii Sistini”’, ed. Casimiri, R., Note d'Archivio per la Storia Musicale, 1–17, 1924–1940)Google Scholar. The system was the usual one of charging singers with one or more punti (points) for each infraction, such as tardiness or refusal to obey orders. A 1552 document of the procuratia fixes the value of each punto at 5 soldi, or roughly 4% of the value of a ducat (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 128, fol. 5v).

12 See Caffi, , Storia della musica, i, p. 39Google Scholar.

13 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 129, fol. 136r: ‘Il che sarà con non picol sparagno de detta giesia, pocheda questa capella picola si potra cavar voci diverse che si meterano per cantar nella capella nostra preditta et se gli darà assai minor salario di quello che si convien al presente assignare alle voci forestiere che si conducono per cantar in quella che non è meno de ducati otanta et 100/ per cadauna.’

14 There is the possibility that when the procuratori talked about ‘80 or 100 ducats’ they had in mind a rise granted to seven singers by the Collegio (I-Vas, Collegio, Notatorio, Reg. 33, fol. 151r, 22 July 1562) when their salary had been increased to sums varying from 80 to 100 ducats a year with the proviso that they were not to sing at the scuole during the Easter season. This decree was not copied in the books of the procuratia and is not mentioned in any other document: it is possible that it was never put into effect.

15 The soprano was Michiel Songa, see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 129, fol. 106r, 16 November 1561. Francesco Violante was one of two singers paid 80 ducats a year in 1556 (the other was Pietro Gaetano); in the same year Daniele Grisonio was paid 70 ducats (I-Vas, PSM, Busta 3, proc. 48, fasc. 1, about a third of the way through).

16 For the hiring of Violante as teacher see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 125, fol. 115r, 22 January 1541 [i.e. 1542]. Alberto Pichion ‘francigena’ was the predecessor of Pietro de Fossis, as appears clearly from the cashier records in I-Vas, PSM, Giornali Cassier, Reg. 1, where the first surviving list of singers dates from 28 April 1486.

17 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 124, fol. 18r, 11 August 1526.

18 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 124, fol. 142v, 15 July 1532: ‘et teneatur cantare si et quando requisitus fuerit a magistro capelle cantus tantum et non aliter’.

19 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 32r, 10 January 1563 [i.e. 1564].

20 For Piero, see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 36v; for Samaritana, Reg. 131, fol. 28v.

21 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 131, fol. 32v, 20 February 1566 [i.e. 1567].

22 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 132, fol. 4r.

23 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 131, fol. 120r, 18 April 1570.

24 The procuratori might have intended to reward Luca's father by bestowing these benefices on the young zago. Somebody without Luca's connections might not have received the same generous treatment. His career at St Mark's ended in 1575, as we learn from a document concerning his mansionaria: ‘The herald Domenico … reported he has ordered father Vincenzo Pizzoni that from now on he shall not officiate as mansionario in San Giacomo dell'Orio, which he was doing as a substitute for Luca Marubin, who has left Venice and does not wish to be a cleric any longer’ (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 133, fol. 64v, 7 November 1575). In March 1576 a short reference to Luca indicates that he had died (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 134, fol. 2v, 18 March 1576).

25 For Molino, see I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 81v. For Zelst: Ducrot, A., ‘Histoire de la Cappella Giulia au xvie siele’, Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire, 75 (1963), p. 205Google Scholar.

26 It is possible that the fifteenth-century singer whose name was variously transcribed as Nicolò da Zeya, Cilia, Zilio, Zilgia and Zelia came from Celje, now a northern Yugoslavian city. Sanudo in his diaries mentions in a 1527 entry ‘a place called Slanfel in Zeya, which is eighteen of our miles past Pontebba’ (Sanudo, M., I diarii, ed. Fulin, R. et al. , Venice, 1879–1903, xlvi, col. 388)Google Scholar. Pontebba can be found on the Italian side of the Austro-Italian border.

27 The only singer who might have come from the southern part of the Italian peninsula is a ‘Messer pre Nicolò da Bari cantor in S. Marco’ mentioned in a notarial document in Padua in 1480 (see Sartori, A., Documenti per la storia della musica al Santo e nel Veneto, Vicenza, 1977, p. 173); his name does not appear in the chapel lists of 1486Google Scholar.

28 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 192, fol. 50r, 1 August 1543.

29 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 76v (4 June 1557) for the organist, and Reg. 193 fol. 103r (25 and 28 October 1559) for the singers.

30 For Galterio, see Casimiri, R., ‘Musica e musicisti nella Cattedrale di Padova nei sec. XIV, XV, XVI’, Note d'Archivio per la Storia Musicale, 18 (1941), pp. 197–8. For the hiring of Michiel Songa, see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 129, fol. 106r, 16 November 1561Google Scholar.

31 See, for instance, the letter written on behalf of Giovanni Celsa (or Zelst) on 9 July 1557 (I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 77r): ‘li giorni passati che si parti de qui domino Zuane Zelsa cantor per venir dellj ne promise di ritrovar cantori soprani et contralti a voce mudata per la giessia nostra de S. Marco’.

32 I-Vas, PSM, Busta 3, proc. 48, fasc. 1.

33 Casimiri, ‘Musica e musicisti’, p. 206.

34 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 193v, 7 January 1563 [i.e. 1564]: ‘Messer francesco carissimo: La chiesa nostra di S. Marco ha sempre bisogno della buone voci et hora desidera un buon contralto come sete voi, Perhò me le e parso di scrivere la presente accio debbiate venir de qui che li sara fatto partito, et sarà ancho a gratto la vostra servitu come è stata per avanti. E mi par essendo voi suddito di questo Serenissimo Dominio siatte obligato servir piu presto questo stato che ogn'altro Principe, et son sicuro che l'excellentissimo Signor Duca suo Patron non haverà a male il vostro partir, essendo sua eccellenza cosi giusto et cosi prudente principe come è cognosciuto per il mondo, Il quale io in particular grandemente osservo; Perhò non meterette tempo alla vostra venuta, overo a rispondere il vostro volere, accio si possa venir a qualche altra conclusione.’

35 I-Vas, PSM, Busta 91, proc. 208, fol. 2.

36 See the entries in I-Vas, PSM, Giornali Cassier, Reg. 1.

37 I-Vas, PSM, Busta 91, proc. 208, fol. 3, 7 September 1513: ‘ritornar (come era) nel numero delli altri cantori di san marco’.

38 I-Vas, PSM, Giornali Cassier, Reg. 2 (for 1485–92) and I-Vas, Canceleria Inferiore, Misc. Notai Diversi, Busta 15, 4 folios without pagination, torn from a small notebook, 15 November 1510 (Francesco quondam magistri alberti).

39 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 129v (16 December 1562 and 29 November 1564).

40 While the procuratori must have been pleased to hire a musician of Rore's reputation, they were certainly less than pleased at the brevity of his service. For Rore's generally negative view of the situation at the church, see his famous letter transcribed in Alvin, Johnson's dissertation ‘The Liturgical Music of Cipriano de Rore’ (Yale University, 1954), pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

41 Fenlon, I., Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar.

42 Quoted in Fenlon, , Music and Patronage, p. 175Google Scholar, with the incorrect date of 23 February [recte: September] 1549: ‘… ne ritrovai duoi de nostri che sonno al servitio di questa Illustrissima Signoria quali a me parve fossero sofficienti al proposito suo Et quelli ritrovai prontissimi anzi desiderosissimi di far cosa grata a Vostra Signoria Reverendissima’.

43 Fenlon, , Music and Patronage, p. 175Google Scholar: ‘Ho ricevuto una altra di Vostra Signoria Illustrissima, la quale fu necessaria per lo aviso del contralto … mando li adunque tutte tre insieme.’

44 I-Vas, Provveditori alla Sanità, Necrologi, Busta 795, 21 September 1550.

45 Federhofer, H., Musikpflege und Musiker am Grazer Habsburgerhof der Erherzöge Karl und Ferdinand von Innerösterreich, 1561–1619 (Mainz, 1967), esp. pp. 72 and 231Google Scholar. Other singers can be shown to have moved from Venice to Graz. See, for instance, ‘Franzischke Vettritz aus Mantua, Tenorist’ mentioned in 1574 (Federhofer, , Musikpflege, p. 138)Google Scholar, surely the same person as the tenor (Giovanni) Francesco de Fedricis da Mantova who was first hired at St Mark's in 1571.

46 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 98 (Cerimoniale), fol. 74r: ‘statuimus et ordinamus quod nullus praesbiter aut Clericus in sacris ordinibus constitutus ac beneficiatus aut salariatus in ecclesia S. Marci audeat nec presumat de cetero tenere secum in domo tam in Canonica quam extra aliquam mulierem inhonestae vitae aut aliam de incontinentia suspectam… etiam si esset sibi aliquo consanguinitatis vinculo coniuncta vel parentella … possint tamen tenere secum in domo pedissequam seu servitricem que sit etatis annorum quinquaginta.’

47 I-Vas, NotarileTestamenti, Notaio Marco Antonio Cavanis, Buste 193–7, no. 16, 14 July 1552: ‘la qual Zephirina e nasciuta in casa mia, sia fia di chi esser si volia’.

48 I-Vas, Sant'Uffizio, Processi, Busta 31. This is probably the ‘Francesco mantoan’ hired by the procuratori on 24 March 1571 (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 132, fol. 12r). He declared at the beginning of the questioning: ‘Io ho nome Zuane Francesco figlio del quondam messer Antonio de Fedricis et son Mantoano, et il mio essercitio è de Cantar in S. Marco. […asked the age of his housekeeper, Isabella Cesana, he replied:] circa 40 anni piu presto piu che manco.’ The clerk reported ‘che vi era una femina di fresca età, la qual stava in Compagnia et al governo di esso frate’.

49 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fols. 52v-53r.

50 That during the sixteenth century some procuratori were under investigation for financial improprieties made a great impression in Venice, and was attributed to the fact that this dignity had been sold to several individuals to raise cash for the war of the League of Cambrai; in the process the number of procuratori had been temporarily raised from nine to forty.

51 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 123, fol. 21r, 3 March 1519.

52 The relevant documents are in I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 124, fol. 76v (14 August 1530); fol. 102v (17 February 1530 [i.e. 1531]); and fol. 234v (7 March 1536).

53 One document among many showing his titles at San Lorenzo and San Severo is in I-Vas, Notarile Atti. Busta 5603, fol. 102r.

54 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 123, fol. 69r, 16 January 1524.

55 I-Vas, PSM, Affittanze, Reg. 173, fols. 34v-35r: ‘ex quibus solvere debeat ducatos decem in anno et ratione anni et alios ducatos decem sibi remittunt de anno in anno Iuxta et secundum promisionem eidem domino francisco factam per prefatos Clarissimos Dominos procuratores’.

56 See I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 124, fols. 177v and 182v, and several entries in the series Giornali Cassier in the late 1530s. A similar case, occurring much later in the century, was the rental of a house administered by the procuratia on the part of Andrea Gabrieli. In a famous document (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 132, fol. 32v) Claudio Merulo petitioned the procuratori to receive the same housing benefits as his colleague.

57 As examples, see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 128, fol. 20r. and Reg. 129. fol. 126r.

58 He mentions this office in a codicil to his will (I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Notaio Nicolò Cigrini, Busta 200a, no. 27). I have not seen documents concerning the bestowal of this sinecure on Cavazzoni, but the information is included in Oscar Mischiati's article on the musician in the Dizionario biografico degli italiani (Rome, 1960–), xxiii, pp. 58–62.

59 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 124, fols. 151v-152r, 19 November 1532.

60 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 125, fol. 154v [a marginal addition]: ‘Item ducatos decem eidem dandos singulo anno donec & quousque fuerit sibi provisum de una mansionaria in aliqua Ecclesia huius civitatis… quia nisi fuisset receptus modo quo supra erat recessurus ab hac civitate ut dixerunt dicti Cantores…’

61 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 124r, 26 June 1562.

62 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 47v, 1 December 1547.

63 Ibid.: ‘… et quando per quellj Reverendj canonicj sui collega li fusse fatta alcuna difficoltà sopra li Incertj li faretj Intender, che venendo quello al servitio della chiesia nostra, siano contentj di non li mover alcuna difficultà Ma lassar che se ne venghj con bon animo’.

64 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 264r-v.

65 I-Vas, PSM, Lettere, Reg. 193, fol. 129v: ‘se veniriano a tal servitio… li daressimo ducati 200/ all'anno de provisione e la casa gratis et saria primario maestro in una città dalla quale ne caverà et gran utile et gran honore’. On the ‘gran utile’, see the letter of Monteverdi to Alessandro Striggio the younger of 13 March 1620, in which the maestro claimed he could easily earn 200 ducats a year (or half his regular salary) by providing new music for the scuole (transcribed in Lettere, dediche e prefazioni, ed. de' Paoli, D. (Rome, 1973), p. 150)Google Scholar. In the same letter, see also Monteverdi's assessment of the authority given to the maestro of St Mark's by the procuratori (‘il servizio poi è dolcissimo’), a view certainly not shared by Rore.

66 Glixon, , Music, ii, p. 24, 3 06 1492Google Scholar; the singers in question were, besides de Fossis, Marco Bussati, Antonio Scatoler and Nicolò balanzer (Nicolò de Leonardis).

67 Glixon, , Music, ii, p. 34Google Scholar.

68 Glixon, ‘A Musicians' Union’. See my ‘Chapel of St Mark's’, pp. 62–4, for a discussion of documents showing evidence of the activities of these ‘compagnie’ in the 1520s.

69 See above, n. 14: ‘con questa conditione, che essi Cantori, quali hanno avuto l'augumento, dal sabbato precedente alla Dominica della Palme fino alla terza festa della pasca della resurettione non possino … andar a Cantar altrove’.

70 I am assuming that the procuratori basically reimbursed the singers in question for lost income during the Easter season, but did not go too far above that.

71 To cite but a few examples, see the sonnet no. 68 in Rime di Domenico Veniero (Bergamo, 1751), dedicated to Franceschina Bellamano; no. 98, to Gasparo Fiorino di Rossano, ‘celebre musico’; and no. 100, to Monsignor Girolamo Fenaruolo, with its oft-quoted beginning: ‘Ben perì suon, qual suona il nome stesso’, on the death of Perissone Cambio.

72 Calmo, A., Le lettere di Andrea Calmo, ed. Rossi, V. (Turin, 1888)Google Scholar.

73 Calmo often used musical terms not only in their proper context, but also for series of saucy doubles entendres; see, for instance, the first letter in Book 1, to Paolo Lombardini, where Calmo writes: ‘I am like an organ: milady pumps the bellows and gives breath to the pipes, my desire works the stops, and I am the octaves, fifths, thirds and tenths, improvising with the b-sharp, and when, after too much playing, because the instrument is worn out, we turn to b-flat [in Italian: b-molle, i.e. ‘soft b’], all of a sudden we all begin a counterpoint, and in this manner, slowly and a little bit at a time, we compose madrigals more beautiful than the works of Adriano, Verdelot and Arcadelt.’

74 Calmo, , Lettere, p. 149Google Scholar: ‘Item lasso el mio subioto d'arcaze [a type of wood?], che sia dao a missier Pre Zefiro mio amigo. … Item lasso le mie componidure e scartabeli e cosse ridotole e piasevole al cantarin Scufioni, homo raro.’

75 For Bastiato's hiring, see I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 125, fol. 160v, 23 August 1543. The 1566 document (a power of attorney) is in I-Vas, Notarile Atti, Busta 5603, fol. 331v.

76 I-Vas, Dieci Savi alle Decime, Busta 134, no. 902 (decima of Carlo Contarini): ‘item in muran in contra de S. Salvador una casa da stazio, tien affitto messer camillo trivisan et messer iseppo grandonio et compagni, pagano alanno ducati 40’.

77 I-Vas, Notarile Atti, Atti Pietro Partenio, Busta 10651, 3 July 1567.

78 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 95r, 2 September 1565.

79 A more exhaustive discussion of Bonagiunta's activities as editor of music is in my unpublished paper ‘Giulio Bonagiunta da S. Genesi: an Editor of Music in 16th-Century Venice’, read at the spring 1983 meeting of the Southeastern chapter of the American Musicological Society.

80 As mentioned in n. 4, Rebecca Edwards of Princeton University is completing a dissertation on the life of Merulo that will present much information on his publishing enterprise.

81 I-Vas, Collegio, Notatorio, Reg. 15, fol. 109r-v (15 February 1504), and Reg. 16, fol. 70r [recte: 76r] (10 November 1510).

82 Grimaldi, F., La cappella musicale di Loreto nel Cinquecento (Loreto, 1981), pp. 88–9Google Scholar.

83 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 123, fol. 72r (13 April 1524), and Reg. 123, fol. 96v (28 Ju1y 1525).

84 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 55v, 28 September 1529.

85 Calmo, , Lettere, pp. 197–8Google Scholar: ‘magnifico, generoso e splendido, marcadante d'una parola e realissimo intei so negotii e cortese a i so servidori … adornao de fioli che par Dei … chi a la cancelaria de monsignor, chi navegante, chi studente, chi a la mercantia e chi al governo de casa, assae ben comodao de nave, roba, ofitii, possession e credito honorevolmente … citadin de Veniesia, ministro de la republica, marcadante famoso. parcenevole d'una nave grossa.’

86 See Agostini, G. degli, Notizie istorico critiche intorno la vita e le opere degli scrittori veneziani (Venice, 1752–1754), i, p. 556Google Scholar.

87 I-Vas, Notarile Atti, Busta 8229, fols. 122v-123r.

88 I-Vas, Notarile Atti, Busta 8290. fol. 276v.

89 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 78, no. 193.

90 I-Vas, Dieci Savi alle Decime, Busta 127, no. 654: ‘Et pago de fitto de casa ducati 20, lo qual mi fu chresiuto et altre infinite spese.’ The location of his possessions is not surprising, since he was known also as Francesco da Treviso. The farmland, together with its modest farmhouse, was rented for 40 lire a year, while the house in Treviso fetched 3 ducats.

91 I-Vas, Dieci Savi alle Decime, Busta 127, no. 600.

92 I-Vas, Quattro Ministeriali, Strida e Chiamori, Reg. 156, fol. 166r. The date of the document is 12 January 1565 [i.e. 1566]; there could be several reasons why the purchase was made public only at this time.

93 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 128, no. 15: ‘Il residuo veramente de tutti li mei beni, si mobeli come stabelj, ori, arzenti, et de ogni qualunche sorte che me ritrovo in casa, o for di casa, scrittj, o non scrittj ditti in questo mio Testamento … lasso a Franceschina mia Cara Consorte.’

94 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 200a, no. 27.

95 Ibid.: ‘ad Anastasio suo fratello, le prediche et altri libri vulgari del reverendo Padre fra Gieronimo Savonarolla’.

96 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 645, no. 32: ‘lasso… a Vittoria delli Anzoli, essendo, o non essendo mia fia, tutti i miej libri, ch'io mi ritrovo havere in lingua vulgare solamente, non comprendendo alcuno altro libro latino, o di alcuna altra lingua, della vulgare in fuora’.

97 Ibid.: ‘… io lasso la sopradetta madonna Anzola … mia residuaria, et herede et (come ho detto di sopra) mia sola commissaria. Et mi duolo che il residuo delli mej benj, delli quali io la constituisco residuaria, è molto poco, alli gran meriti che ha con mi essa madonna Anzola, per le grandissime fatiche, le quali ella ha fatte, per li grandissimj disasij, ch'ella ha suportati, per la rara amorevolezza, ch'ella ha usata in governare la vita mia, non solamente in sanità, ma molto piu in gravissime, et lunghissime infirmita, et per la indicibil fedeltà, et lealta, ch'ella ha usata in manizare, et governare, et augumentare la robba mia. … Et per rendere testimonianza della verità … Io dichiaro che molte delle robbe, che sono in casa mia, sono sue, portate da lej, bone fide, quando venne in casa mia, per mia governatrice.’

98 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 645, no. 48 (Zatta) and Busta 193–7, no. 16 (Zeffiro).

99 I-Vas, Notarile Testamenti, Busta 194, no. 304, 9 October 1570.

100 Ibid. In his file there is a short undated codicil in which he leaves a vineyard in his native Capodistria to the male descendants of his family, or, failing the line, to the canons of the cathedral of that city (as we have already seen, Grisonio had been, or was still, a canon there). The last codicil is dated 13 October 1574: ‘Et prego essa Reverenda madre priora che Dia tuti li mei libri vulgari & altri di mie fatiche, cioe sermonj et altre cose simile a suor Concordia sua sorella.’

101 This last reason is slightly puzzling, since it seems it would have been as easy for the procuratori to grant a small rise to the singer in question, but it was often given: see, for instance, the gift of 10 ducats to Ercole de' fra minori in 1568 (I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 131, fol. 71v).

102 See, for instance, I-Vas, PSM, Giornali Cassier, Reg. 3, 29 October 1569, where the singers listed as repaying loans are: Francesco Zeffiro, Alvise di Santi Apostoli, Pietro Gaetano, Zuane Bastiato, Bernardo dai frati menori, Battista Arrigoni and Ludovico Balbi. Interestingly, there is at least one late example of obligatio, not in the official records of the procuratia, but in those of a private notary. In 1572 Alvise di Santi Apostoli promised to a Vincenzo Stella the payment he was to receive for a mansionaria (I-Vas, Notarile Atti, Busta 3, fasc. 10, penultimate folio, dated 14 March).

103 See I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 96r, 13 October 1565: a loan given to Claudio Merulo, who presumably used it to finance his publishing venture, amounted to 100 ducats. Also I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 95r, 25 September 1565: a loan of 40 ducats to Giulio Bonagiunta.

104 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 212r, 1 September 1550: ‘Retulit praesbiter Allovisius scutica nuntius Intimasse de ordine Reverendi Domini Vicarij praesbitero baptiste perillo nuncupato furlaneto qualiter in termino trium dierum proxime futurorum debeat satisfecisse debitum suum quod habet cum Domino francisco mercatori vinj, aliter ellapso dicto termino sit et Intelligatur suspensus a divinis Iuxta sollitum.’

105 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 267v, 18 August 1516.

106 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dei Dogi, Busta 194, fols. 52v-53r.

107 I-Vas, PSM, Busta 90, proc. 20 (no foliation): ‘Et quoniam praedictus Hieronimus Cantor dictae nostrac Ecclesiae, et nobis, et iurisdictioni nostrae subiectus est, prout sunt alij cantores, et alij dictae nostrae Ecclesiae inservientes, sicut credimus Magnificentias Vestras fore et esse certiores, et nos esse suum Iudicem competentem; Ideo … requirimus et eisdem intimamus … eam ad nos … remittant, prout alij praedecessores vestri in similibus etiam hoc fecerunt; … quod Magnficentias Vestras pro sua solita bonitate, et iustitia, et Serenissimi Principis nostri auctoritate, a quo etiam iurisdictio nostra dependet, facturas minime dubitamus.’

108 I-Vas, Cancelleria Inferiore, Atti dci Dogi, Busta 194, fol. 269v, 23 February 1517 [i.e. 1518]: ‘perhibendi testimonium veritatis coram magnificis Dominis de nocte … Dummodo non sit causa criminalis … Cum coram nobis relatum sit per pasqualinum offitialem dicti offitij noctis de ordine dominorum suorum causam predictam civilem esse et non criminalem videlicet ocasione certi anuli.’

109 I-Vas, Esecutori alla Bestemmia, Busta 56, fol. 31v, 28 May 1567.

110 I-Vas, PSM, Reg. 130, fol. 88v: ‘Desiderando… provedere de un maestro per la capella di S. Marco che sia non solamente dotto et pratico della musica ma come quello che ha da essere superiore alli altri musici sia anche prudente et modesto in far el suo officio, havendo havuta ottima informatione della suficientia et della modestia di messer pre Iseppo Zarlino et havendone voluto … haver sopra ciò participatione con sua serenità, l'hanno elletto per maestro della sopradetta capella.’