Sancto Tomascy de Aquino: A Medieval Confraternity in L’Aquila and its Laudario

Abstract

The confraternity of San Tommaso d’Aquino, founded in the church of the Dominicans in L’Aquila at the beginning of the fourteenth century thanks to the patronage of the wealthy merchant family Gaglioffi and to a number of important relationships, imme­diately became one of the most prestigious sodalities in the city. After a long ecclesiastical suspension in the middle of the century, the con­fraternity resumed its activities and returned to play a leading role in the city, especially in the musical sphere, giving rise up until the third quarter of fifteenth century to a wide production of laude and sacred dramas. Most of these have been preserved — without, how­ever, their respective settings — in ms. Vitt. Em. 349 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Rome. This article explores the structure and content of this laudario in order to shed light on some of its most important music features.