Tinctoris's Italian translation of the Golden Fleece statutes: a text and a (possible) context

Abstract

Any assessment of a fifteenth-century court musician failing to take account of those extra-musical activities – be they juridical, administrative, liturgical or whatever – which almost invariably constituted an intrinsic part of that musician's overall function must be deemed at best flawed, at worst a chronic perpetuation of that romanticising instinct to dislocate music from its integral rôle as a morally and spiritually heightening force in the court's social structure. This is not, of course, to deny the acceleration in the emergence both of the ‘professional’ musician and of a more autonomous musical language, together with the potential for a similar though less tangible degree of autonomy in the public and private response to that music, all of which undoubtedly seems to have taken place in the fifteenth century. But, to take the practical case of Tinctoris, it is clear that, aside from his musical skills and the political attractions to Naples of forging cultural links with the Burgundian—Netherlandish circles of influence, a high-level training in canon and civil law would have contributed in no small measure to the securing of his post at the Neapolitan court of King Ferrante, and, more specifically, was probably a major factor in his being commissioned by royal mandate, soon after his arrival in Italy, to translate into Italian the statutes of the Order of the Golden Fleece for his new employer, on the occasion of Ferrante's election to knighthood of the order.