Verdelot in Florence, Coppini in Rome, and the Singer La Fiore

Abstract

Verdelot seems to have arrived in Italy long before any known document clearly establishes his presence there. If we are to believe Vasari in the 1568 edition of the Lives-and after Colin Slim's analysis of the question there seems to be no reason not to-then Verdelot was in Venice at least by 151 1, perhaps as maestro di cappella of some Venetian church.' But we first hear of the composer unequivocally after he moved to Florence. Until now, the earliest archival reference to him has been from April, 1523, at which time he was maestro di cappella of the Baptistry; but Slim has shown, through analysis of a passage in one of the dialogues of Antonfrancesco Doni's I marmi (a dialogue in which Verdelot is a participant), that the composer must have been in Florence before the closing of the Rucellai gardens in June, 1522.2 I am happy to report here a new document supporting Slim's conclusions as well as a suggestion made by Nino Pirrotta about the relationship of the early madrigal composers to the court of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII).