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“Artistic” Theory of Dance in Fifteenth-Century Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Barbara Sparti
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Extract

Fifteenth-century Italy produced the earliest known treatises on the art of the dance. These contained the choreographic descriptions and music of composed dances performed by the nobility and the bourgeoisie on public and private occasions. The treatises also provided the first known formulation of a theory of the dance, and set out its basic principles. The authors of the choreographies and their music, in particular two dancing-masters, were concerned that dance be recognised as both art and science. The liberal arts of the time included music and architecture, but not dance or painting. It is also quite possible that, by endeavouring to emulate the Medieval and Renaissance musicus (the philosopher of music who dealt only with the theory of his art), the dancing-masters were attempting to improve their own social and economic standing as well.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 35 , 2003 , pp. 183 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 By The International Council for Traditional Music

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References

All quotations are from the following sources, and the translations are my own.Google Scholar
Cornazano, Antonio 1465 Libro dell'arte del danzare. Rome, Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana (Capp. 203). Edition C. Mazzi, La Bibliofilia 18 (1915). Translation M. Inglehearn and P. Forsyth, The book on the art of dancing: Antonio Cornazano. London: Dance Books, Ltd., 1981. (The treatise is a copy of a now lost 1455 original.)Google Scholar
Domenico da Piacenza c. 1455 De arte saltandij & choreas ducendj. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds it. 972. Edition D. R. Wilson, Domenico of Piacenza. Cambridge: Early Dance Circle, 1988. Edition and translation A. W. Smith, Fifteenth-century dance and music, vols I and II. Stuyvesant NY: Pendragon Press, 1995.Google Scholar
c, Gioanne Ambrosio. 1470 De pratica seu arte tripudii. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale fonds it. 476. Published in A. W. Smith, Fifteenth-century dance and music, vol. I, 1995.Google Scholar
Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro 1463 De pratica seu arte tripudii. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale fonds it. 973. Published in B. Sparti, Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro: On the Practice or Art of Dancing, 1993.Google Scholar
Sparti, Barbara, ed. and transl. 1993 Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro: On the practice or art of dancing. Second edition 1995, reprinted 1999. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar