Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa e la trasmissione dell’arciliuto a Napoli e nell’Italia meridionale

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This essay is an overview of the diffusion of arciliuto in Naples and southern Italy in the early XVIIth Century. Although the Duke Alfonso II of Este and the liutist Alessandro Piccinini contributed to the design and achievement of the paduan shop of the german lute maker Cristofaro Eberle, Gesualdo da Venosa – together with other german lute makers – played an important role in the its diffusion in Naples and in Gesualdo’s feud. This article traces back the relationship between Alfonso II and Gesualdo, who received two of the three Eberle’s arciliuti and the relationship between Gesualdo and Kapsberger, the latter being lately to be responsible for the diffusion of tiorba in Naples. It is also about Georg Kayser, german lute maker active in Naples, who had been apprentice of Eberle-Hartung in Padua and the commission of one of the first Neapolitan arciliuto by the Earl of Lemos. Finally puts in evidence the important role played by Accademia degli Oziosi and by the Congregazione di Santa Cecilia and her cappella musicale.