Music and Culture in Late Renaissance Italy [Hardcover]

This collection of essays is unified by a number of concerns: one is the way in which musical activity of all kinds was instrumentalized by those in power, in Italy, during the Sixteenth Century. A second expressed through the chornological concentration on the second half of the century, is with a period which is still often regarded as one of decline and degeneracy after the achievements of the Quattrocento and the decades before thecalam?t? d'Italia. This book implicitly argues that Italian culture did not lose its vigor after 1530, but underwent a transformation, as both individuals and institutions reacted to new economic, political, and religious circumstances.

List of Illustrations
List of Plans
List of Abbreviations
1. Magnificence as Civic Image: Music and Ceremonial Space in Early Modern Venice
2. Strangers in Paradise: Dutchmen in Venice in 1525
3. Music and Reform: The Savonarolan Legacy
4. Music and Civic Piety in Counter-Reformation Milan
Appendix: The Tini Broadside Catalogue ofc.1596
5. Scipione Gonzaga: A 'Poor' Cardinal in Rome
6. Gioseffo Zarlino and the Accademia Venetiana della Fama
7. Lepanto: Music, Ceremony, and Celebration in Counter-Reformation Rome
8. Rites of Passage: Cosimo I de' Medici and the Theatre of Death
9. Giaches de Wert and the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara: Music, Liturgy, and Design
10. Preparations for a Princess: Florence, 1588-1589
Bibliography
Index

Fortunately, few reviewers, if any, would find Iain Fenlon's book hard to read since his arguments are expressed in a graceful prose that renders his subject matter entirely accessible to readers...Fenlon has established himself, over two decades, as one of the ablest practitioners in historical musicology and multidisciplinary studies...this produces rich, provocative results for readers...colleagulC(