The Polyphonic Laude of Innocentius Dammonis

Abstract

I n the early decades of the sixteenth century, Venice was acknowledged as one of the most important cultural centers of Europe. Giovanni Bellini was considered by many to be the greatest painter of the day, and the circle of scholars around Aldo Manutio established the Republic as a focus of humanistic studies. Musically, Venice has seemed to us less distinguished during these years owing to the absence of renowned composers before the arrival of Adrian Willaert in 1527. There were, however, many active musical establishments, including the Ducal Chapel of San Marco and the singers and instrumentalists of the great religious confraternities, the 19 Scuole Grandi.l Venice was also, until 1509, the workplace of the great music printer Ottaviano Petrucci. Despite these considerable musical activities, very little Venetian music of this period survives. Only two manuscripts of these years can be linked to Venice; both are secular, and neither is connected with any institutional musical establishment. One (Biblioteca nazionale marciana, Ms. Ital. IV, 1795-1798) is a set of four part-books of secular music, transitional between frottola and madrigal, datable around 1520 (recently published by the Fondazione Ugo Levi in Venice),2 and the other (Biblioteca nazionale marciana, Ms. Ital. IV, 1227) is a small book of dances for keyboard, dating from just a few years earlier (published many years ago by Jeppesen).3 No manu-