PRINTING AND PATRONAGE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ITALY

Abstract

In discussing patronage in Renaissance Italy, scholars have generally focussed on a single Maecenas, who has built up a musical establishment and created a cultural environment either because of a genuine love of music or because of a desire to demonstrate wealth and power. Studies on the Italian signoria, particularly the Estes of Ferrara, the Gonzagas of Mantua, the House of Aragon in Naples, and the Papal court in Rome come to mind.1 Yet the concept of a single benefactor describes only one, albeit important, form of patronage, for, in cinquecento Italy, other opportunities opened up for composers which augmented the established system. One prospect for economic gain was the selling of works by composers directly to individuals other than their own patrons. Often this was done on an ad-hoc basis as seen in a few surviving letters by composers, patrons, and intermediaries. During the sixteenth-century, the madrigal became the ideal vehicle for this type of patronage, since short pieces could be bought on an individual basis by the client who either could not or did not wish to support the composer on a full-time basis.2