The Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
Volume 18 (2012) No. 1
Published 2016
Monteverdi and Some Problems of Biography
Tim Carter
APPENDIX
Claudio Monteverdi: A Chronology
Note: This chronology includes details of Monteverdi’s life (and other events linked to it) verifiable, or nearly so, from contemporary printed or archival sources, and securely (or nearly so) linked to a specific date; it does not, however, include every single action noted in Monteverdi’s letters, and other apparent trivia have been excluded. In the case of Monteverdi’s seemingly repetitive activities (e.g., at St. Mark’s, Venice), the first known reference is cited even if it may come long after that activity began (e.g., the requirement that he compose a new Mass setting for Christmas Eve, first noted in 1616). Entries or remarks preceded by a question mark either have doubtful, if still plausible, documentation, or arise by inference from other sources.
The model for presenting this kind of information in such a manner is the “calendar” in Denis Arnold, Monteverdi, 3rd ed. rev. Tim Carter, “The Master Musicians” (London: Dent, 1990), 166–87. This book also contains a useful list of Monteverdi’s works, even if it now requires some updating. Further information is largely drawn from:
Besutti, Paola. “Variar ‘le prime 7 stanze della Luna’: ritrovati versi di ballo per Jacopo Peri.” Studi musicali 34, no. 2 (2005): 319–74.
Carter, Tim. “Artusi, Monteverdi, and the Poetics of Modern Music.” In Musical Humanism and its Legacy: Essays in Honor of Claude V. Palisca, edited by Nancy Kovaleff Baker and Barbara Russano Hanning, 171–94. Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 1992.
Collarile, Luigi, ed. Salve Regine del Sig. Claudio Monteverde: Facsimile e edizione critica. Bologna: Forni, 2011.
Fabbri, Paolo. Monteverdi. Turin: EDT, 1985. Translated by Tim Carter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Glixon, Beth L. “Scenes from the Life of Silvia Gailarti Manni, a Seventeenth-Century Virtuosa.” Early Music History 15 (1996): 97–146.
Glixon, Jonathan. “Was Monteverdi a Traitor?” Music and Letters 72, no. 3 (August 1991): 404–6.
Kurtzman, Jeffrey. “Monteverdi’s Missing Sacred Music: Evidence and Conjectures.” In Muzykolog wobec świadectw źródłowych i dokumentów: Księga pamiątkowa dedykowana Profesorowi Piotrowi Poźniakowi w 70. rocznicę urodzin/The Musicologist and Source Documentary Evidence: A Book of Essays in Honour of Professor Piotr Poźniak on his 70th Birthday, edited by Zofia Fabiańska et al., 187–208. Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 2009.
Monteverdi, Claudio. Lettere. Edited by Éva Lax. Florence: Olschki, 1994.
Monteverdi, Claudio. The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi. Translated by Denis Stevens. 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Parisi, Susan. “Ducal Patronage of Music in Mantua, 1587–1627: An Archival Study.” PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1989.
Parisi, Susan. “New Documents Concerning Monteverdi’s Relations with the Gonzagas.” In Claudio Monteverdi: Studi e prospettive; atti del convegno, Mantova, 21–24 ottobre 1993, edited by Paola Besutti, Teresa M. Gialdroni, and Rodolfo Baroncini, 477–511. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1998.
Patuzzi, Stefano. “‘S’a questa d’Este valle’: Claudio Monteverdi and a ‘mascherata’ of 1607 in Mirandola.” Early Music 31, no. 4 (November 2003): 541–56.
Saunders, Steven. “New Light on the Genesis of Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals.” Music and Letters 77, no. 2 (May 1996): 183–93.
Whenham, John, and Richard Wistreich, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
While I have made a reasonable effort to be comprehensive and accurate, I cannot claim to have succeeded fully, and this chronology is clearly open to additions, revisions, and corrections. Indeed, in the collaborative spirit of the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music (and given the potential for updating), I welcome additional contributions from interested scholars and will gladly acknowledge them in any future version of this text.
| 15 May 1567 | M. baptized in Cremona, the eldest son of an apothecary, Baldassare, and Maddalena Zignani (married in 1566). |
| 1576 | M.’s mother dies; Baldassare remarries Giovanni Gadio in this or the next year. |
| 1 Aug. 1582 | M.’s first collection, the three-voice Sacrae cantiunculae (Venice: Angelo Gardano) dedicated to Stefano Canini Valcarenghi, a Cremonese cleric. M. styles himself a pupil of Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (maestro di cappella of Cremona Cathedral), as he does in subsequent publications through 1590. |
| 31 July 1583 | Madrigali spirituali a quattro voci (Brescia: Vincenzo Sabbio) dedicated to Alessandro Fraganesco. |
| 31 Oct. 1584 | Canzonette a tre voci … libro primo (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti and Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to Pietro Ambrosini. |
| 27 Jan. 1587 | First Book of five-voice madrigals (Venice: Angelo Gardano) dedicated to Marco Verità (Veronese patron). |
| 1 Jan. 1590 | Second Book of Madrigals (Venice: Angelo Gardano) dedicated to Giacomo Ricardi (Milanese nobleman); the dedication suggests that M. had often performed in Ricardi’s palace. |
| early to mid 1590 | M. appointed “suonatore di vivuola” to Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. ?”Apprenticed” to Giacomo Cattaneo, head of the duke’s string band. |
| 27 June 1592 | Third Book of Madrigals (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to Duke Vincenzo. |
| 1592–1593 | M.’s annual salary (sc.150) is the second highest of the individual court musicians. |
| ?1593 | Second Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Angelo Gardano). |
| 1594 | Four canzonettas by M. included in Antonio Morsolino, Il primo libro delle canzonette a tre voci (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). Third Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| June–Nov. 1595 | M. in Hungary with Duke Vincenzo and his troops (?meets Giovanni de’ Bardi). |
| 23 May 1596 | Duke Vincenzo’s maestro di cappella, Giaches de Wert, dies; replaced by Benedetto Pallavicino. |
| 1597 | Six madrigals by M. (from Second, Third, and Fourth Books) included in anthology Fiori del giardino (Nuremberg: Paul Kauffmann). |
| 1598 | Third Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| 16 Nov. 1598 | Performances of madrigals by M. in Ferrara prompt the Artusi-Monteverdi controversy. Giovanni Maria Artusi (but not M.?) was probably in Ferrara in the retinue of Papal legate Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini for the proxy marriage of Margaret of Austria and Philip III of Spain (shortly before Margaret saw Guarini’s Il pastor fido staged in Mantua on 22 Nov.). |
| 20 May 1599 | M. marries court singer Claudia Cattaneo, daughter of Giacomo. |
| June–Oct. 1599 | M. accompanies Duke Vincenzo to Spa (Flanders). |
| 1600 | Third Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| 20 Nov. 1600 | Artusi’s L’Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti) dedicated to Cardinal Pompeo Arrigoni. |
| 27 Aug. 1601 | M.’s 1st son, Francesco Baldassare (later, a singer in St. Mark’s), baptized; godfather, Prince Francesco Gonzaga; godmother, Violante Caffino. |
| 26 Nov. 1601 | Pallavicino dies; on 28 Nov., M. petitions Duke Vincenzo (once again in Hungary) for an appointment as the duke’s maestro della musica. He gains the position on an unknown date, with an annual salary of sc.240. |
| 10 April 1602 | M. granted Mantuan citizenship and moves to a house nearer the ducal palace. |
| 20 Feb. 1603 | M.’s 1st daughter, Leonora Camilla, baptized; godfather, Count Giulio Caffino; godmother, Countess Polissena Gonzaga. Daughter lives only for a short time. |
| 1 March 1603 | Fourth Book of Madrigals (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to the Accademia degli Intrepidi of Ferrara (M. says that he originally intended the madrigals for Duke Alfonso II d’Este, who died in Oct. 1597). |
| 25 March 1603 | Artusi’s Seconda parte dell’Artusi overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti) dedicated to Ercole Bottrigari. |
| Aug. 1603 | Caterina Martinelli recruited to Mantua and is lodged with M. |
| 1604 | Third Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| April 1604 | Alessandro I Pico, Prince of Mirandola, asks Duke Vincenzo for permission to borrow M. and his female singers for an entertainment in Mirandola. |
| 10 May 1604 | 2nd son, Massimiliano Giacomo (later a doctor), baptized; godfather, Archduke Maximilian of Austria (uncle of Duke Vincenzo); godmother, Princess Margherita (daughter of Duke Vincenzo). |
| 27 Oct. 1604 | M. complains to the duke about the court treasurer’s (Ottavio Benintendi) reluctance to pay his salary on time; M. has already asked the “Sig. Presidente” (Alessandro Striggio, Jr.) to intervene, with no success. |
| Dec. 1604 | M. writes to duke about music for a ballo (Gli amori di Diana ed Endimione), presumably for Carnival 1604–5, but excuses his slowness on the grounds of ill health. |
| 1605 | Fourth Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). Tommaso Stigliani includes a poem in Monteverdi’s honor in his Rime (Venice: Giovanni Battista Ciotti). |
| 30 July 1605 | Fifth Book of Madrigals (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to Duke Vincenzo. The book contains (at the end) a statement on the seconda pratica, and also eulogistic poems by Cherubino Ferrari, Mantuan court theologian. |
| 1605–1606 | Six madrigals by M. (from Fourth and Fifth Books) included in Melchior Borchgrevinck’s anthology Giardino novo bellissimo di varii fiori musicali scieltissimi, books 1 and 2 (Copenhagen: Henrik Waltkirch). |
| 1606 | Fifth Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). ?Antonio Braccini da Todi (= Artusi) publishes a treatise responding to Monteverdi’s statement on the seconda pratica in the Fifth Book of Madrigals. |
| 1607 | One canzonetta by M. included in Amante Franzoni, I nuovi fioretti musicali a tre voci (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). A first book of sacred contrafacts of M.’s madrigals appears as Aquilino Coppini (ed.), Musica tolta da i madrigali di Claudio Monteverde, e d’altri autori, a cinque, et a sei voci, e fatta spirituale (Milan: Agostino Tradate, 1607; repr. Milan: Melchiore Tradate, 1611). First and Second Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Alessandro Raverii). Third and Fourth Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| Feb. 1607 | M. approached to write music for a mascherata for Alessandro I Pico, Prince of Mirandola. |
| 24 Feb. 1607 | First performance of Orfeo (to a libretto by Alessandro Striggio) before the Accademia degli Invaghiti in Mantua; repeated on 1 March “in the presence of all the ladies of the city”; a third performance may have been planned, but if so, it never came to fruition. |
| 21 July 1607 | Scherzi musicali a tre voci (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi to Prince Francesco Gonzaga. It contains as an appendix a “Dichiaratione” by Giulio Cesare presenting an extensive gloss on the statement concerning the seconda pratica in the Fifth Book of Madrigals. |
| 28 July 1607 | M. sends a sonnet setting (and promises another) for performance before Duke Vincenzo, summering in Sampierdarena (near Genoa). |
| 22 Aug. 1607 | Cherubino Ferrari, Mantuan court theologian, praises the text and music of Orfeo to Duke Vincenzo. |
| 10 Sept. 1607 | Claudia Cattaneo dies in Cremona and is buried there. |
| Oct. 1607–June 1608 | M. works on festivities for Prince Francesco Gonzaga and Margherita of Savoy, including Arianna (performed 28 May 1608; libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini), prologue to Battista Guarini’s L’idropica (2 June), and the Ballo delle ingrate (4 June; Rinuccini). |
| 1608 | Two madrigals by M. included in Giaches de Wert, Il duodecimo libro de madrigali (Venice: Angelo Gardano and Brothers). A second book of sacred contrafacts of M.’s madrigals appears as Aquilino Coppini (ed.), Il secondo libro della musica di Claudio Monteverde e d’altri autori a cinque voci fatta spirituale. (Milan: Heirs of Agostino Tradate). Fifth Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). Antonio Braccino da Todi (= Artusi) publishes his Discorso secondo musicale (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti) responding to Giulio Cesare Monteverdi’s “Dichiaratione” in the Scherzi musicali a tre voci. |
| 9 Nov. 1608 | M. has been in Cremona since the summer. His father, Baldassare, writes to Duke Vincenzo seeking a licenza for the composer to leave Gonzaga service. |
| 26 Nov. 1608 | M. responds to a commission for new music from Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga. |
| 27 Nov. 1608 | M.’s father writes to Duchess Eleonora Gonzaga pressing the case he had made to the duke on behalf of his son. |
| 2 Dec. 1608 | M. writes to Annibale Chieppio in response to a summons to return to Mantua to work on Carnival entertainments (a balletto, it emerges from other sources), complaining about his overwork on, and lack of recognition for, the 1608 festivities, and also seeking a licenza to leave Gonzaga service. |
| 1609 | A third book of sacred contrafacts of M.’s madrigals appears as Aquilino Coppini (ed.), Il terzo libro della musica di Claudio Monteverde a cinque voci fatta spirituale (Milan: Alessandro and heirs of Agostino Tradate). Scherzi musicali a tre voci reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| 4 Jan. 1609 | Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi (maestro di cappella at S. Barbara) dies; replaced briefly by Antonio Taroni and then (April 1609) by Stefano Nascimbeni. |
| 19 Jan. 1609 | Duke Vincenzo confirms an annual pension of sc.100, and then (27 Jan.) increases M.’s annual salary to sc.300 (plus sc.35 for housing). |
| 22 Aug. 1609 | Orfeo (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to Prince Francesco Gonzaga, who is preparing to move to become governor of Monferrato. |
| 24 Aug. 1609 | M. reports to Alessandro Striggio on the progress of a commission from Duke Vincenzo. |
| 10 Sept. 1609 | M. reports on potential musicians for Prince Francesco’s new court at Monferrato, including Cremonese wind players and Galeazzo Sirena. |
| 1610 | Fifth Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). Michele Pario (Parma) compiles manuscript partbooks containing five sacred contrafacts of Monteverdi, three drawing on his Scherzi musicale a tre voci and two unica |
| Jan. 1610 | Prince Francesco Gonzaga (in Casale Monferrato) requests a copy of the score of Orfeo. |
| June 1610 | Adriana Basile (virtuoso singer) arrives in Mantua. |
| 1 Sept. 1610 | Missa … ac vespere (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino) dedicated to Pope Paul V. |
| Oct. 1610 | M. visits Rome (bearing recommendations from Duke Vincenzo and others), in part to present the Missa … ac vespere to the Pope. He is also seeking a place for his son, Francesco, in the Seminario Romano, and financial support for his board and lodging there. |
| Dec. 1610–Jan. 1611 | M. agrees to have madrigals by Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga performed by Adriana Basile and others in one of the typical Friday evening concerts in the Palazzo Ducale (in the Sala degli Specchi). He also requests Cardinal Ferdinando’s aid in securing a source of income to cover Francesco’s board and lodging in Rome. |
| 1611 | Third, Fourth, and Fifth Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| 26 March 1611 | M. sends an eight-voice Dixit Dominus and two motets to Prince Francesco Gonzaga in Casale Monferrato, also promising madrigals in the future. |
| Ascension 1611 | M. writes music for a Vespers service in Mantua. |
| Oct. 1611 | M. seeks in Cremona a bass singer to recruit to Mantuan service. |
| Christmas 1611 | Music by M. performed in Modena Cathedral, with some dissatisfaction. |
| 1612 | M.’s Missa “In illo tempore” (1610) included in Missae senis et octonis vocibus ex celeberrimis auctoribus Horatio Vecchio aliisque collectae (Antwerp: Pierre Phalèse). |
| 18 Feb. 1612 | Duke Vincenzo dies; succeeded by Duke Francesco. |
| 16 March 1612 | Duke Francesco provides a recommendation to Rome in support of M.’s attempt to secure a place for his son, Francesco, in the Seminario Romano. |
| 29 July 1612 | M. and his brother discharged from Mantuan service. |
| 26 Sept. 1612 | Duke Francesco seeks confirmation or denial of rumors that M. was in Milan seeking the position of maestro di cappella at the cathedral, and that a performance he directed there had gone badly. Alessandro Striggio responds that Monteverdi was greatly honored in Milan and was not seeking the position, which was not vacant. |
| 22 Dec. 1612 | Duke Francesco dies; succeeded by Cardinal Ferdinando in regency. |
| 1613 | Fifth Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). |
| 10 July 1613 | Giulio Cesare Martinengo, maestro of St. Mark’s, Venice, dies. |
| 15 Aug. 1613 | M. auditions for St. Mark’s; appointed on 19 Aug. at an annual salary of du.300; moves permanently to Venice in early Oct. |
| Oct. 1613 | Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga invested with title of Duke of Mantua and Monferrato (but not yet crowned). |
| Dec. 1613 | Prince Francesco de’ Medici requests a copy of Arianna (for performance in Florence in Carnival 1614?). |
| 1614 | ?Orfeo performed in Salzburg thanks to Francesco Rasi (and repeated every year to 1619?). |
| 1615 | One motet by M. included in Giovanni Battista Bonometti (ed.), Parnassus musicus Ferdinandaeus (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti). Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Books of Madrigals, Orfeo, and Scherzi musicali a tre voci reissued (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino). Third, Fourth, and Fifth Books of Madrigals reissued (Antwerp: Pierre Phalèse). First two movements of 1610 Vespers included in Georg Gruber (ed.), Reliquiae sacrorum concentuum Giovan Gabrielis, Iohan-Leonis Hasleri, utriusq[ue] praestantissimi musici (Nuremberg: Paul Kauffmann). |
| 6 Nov. 1615 | Ferdinando Gonzaga resigns his cardinalate. |
| 1616 | One madrigal from Third Book of Madrigals included in anthology Il Helicone (Antwerp: Pierre Phalèse). |
| 6 Jan. 1616 | Ferdinando Gonzaga crowned Duke of Mantua and Monferrato. Monteverdi has already been approached for stage music for Mantua (including Tirsi e Clori—later published in the Seventh Book of Madrigals) to mark the occasion. |
| 24 Aug. 1616 | M.’s annual salary at St. Mark’s is increased to du.400. |
| ?Autumn 1616 | M. is in Mantua to attend to family business and to secure payment of his pension. |
| Late 1616 | M. begins work on Scipione Agnelli’s Le nozze di Tetide for festivities in Mantua celebrating the wedding of Duke Ferdinando and Caterina de’ Medici (Florence, 7 Feb. 1617); unfinished. |
| Christmas 1616 | M. composes a Mass for St. Mark’s for Christmas Eve (as, it seems, he was expected to do every year; see also the references in his letters of 30 October, 8 November 1627, and 2 February 1634). |
| 7 Feb. 1617 | Duke Ferdinando marries Caterina de’ Medici in Florence. |
| ?March 1617 | M. contributes prologue to G. B. Andreini’s La Maddalena (music published Venice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1617), perhaps performed during the Mantuan festivities for the wedding of Duke Ferdinando and Caterina de’ Medici, or soon thereafter. |
| Holy Week 1617 | M. is responsible for music at St. Mark’s (as presumably he was every year; see also the references in letters of 21 April 1618, 7 and 22 March 1619, 17 and 21 March 1620). |
| 10 Nov. 1617 | M.’s father dies. |
| 1618 | One motet by M. included in Giovanni Battista Ala, Primo libro delli concerti ecclesiastici (Milan: Filippo Lomazzo). |
| 21 April 1618 | M. makes first mention in his letters of composing a new opera for Mantua, Andromeda (libretto by Ercole Marliani), sponsored by Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga (eventually performed in Carnival 1620). |
| 3 May 1618 | M. is responsible for a concerted Mass and motets for the Feast of the Holy Cross at St. Mark’s (as probably occurred every year). |
| Ascension 1618 | M. rehearses a cantata in praise of the doge for the annual celebration of the wedding to the sea, and also settings of a Mass and Vespers at St. Mark’s (as probably occurred every year). |
| July 1619 | Duke Ferdinando’s maestro di cappella, Santi Orlandi, dies, prompting several attempts to persuade M. to return to Mantua, first by the singer Francesco Campagnolo, then by the temporary maestro, Francesco Dognazzi, then by Alessandro Striggio (M. refuses in his letter of 13 March 1620), then by the duke. |
| 13 Dec. 1619 | Seventh Book of Madrigals, titled Concerto (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni) dedicated to Duchess Caterina de’ Medici-Gonzaga. M. receives a gold chain worth about du.100. M. later seeks various favors from her for himself (including payment of his pension) and his sons. |
| late 1619–early 1620 | M. acts as agent for Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, to print Francesco Petratti’s Il primo libro d’arie. |
| 1620 | One solo madrigal by M. (later published in 1632 Scherzi musicali) included in Giovanni Battista Camarella, Madrigali et arie (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti [but date is uncertain]). Four motets by M. included in Giulio Cesare Bianchi, Libro primo de motetti in lode d’Iddio nostro signore (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). Letanie della Beata Vergine by M. (later published in the Messa … et salmi, 1650) included in Giulio Cesare Bianchi, Libro secondo de motetti, in lode della gloriosissima Vergine Maria nostra signora (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). |
| Carnival 1619–1620 | M. completes Andromeda for performance in Mantua on or about 27 Feb. 1620 (the date of the dedication of the libretto). M.’s ballo, Apollo (text by Alessandro Striggio), is performed around the same time (on 28 or 29 Feb.?). |
| March 1620 | M. involved in music (on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays) for the oratorio of the Primicerio of St. Mark’s, for which he provided music on a regular basis. |
| April–May 1620 | M.’s Arianna projected for performance in Mantua during joint birthday celebrations for Duke Ferdinando and Duchess Caterina, but it is not done. The ballo, Apollo, was probably repeated as part of these celebrations (perhaps on 3 May). |
| 24 June 1620 | M. directs Vespers for the feast of S. Giovanni Battista at the Chiesa di S. Giovanni Elemosinario, Venice, as described by Constantin Huygens. |
| July 1620 | M. involved in music at the Chiesa del Redentore, Venice, for the Feast of the Redeemer (third Sunday in July; as probably occurred every year). In his letter to Alessandro Striggio of 11 July 1620, M. also says that his “hectic days” at St. Mark’s (probably from 29 June, the Feast of Peter and Paul into early July) are over until All Saints’ Day (1 Nov.). |
| 22 Sept. 1620 | M. reports to Alessandro Striggio on a favorable meeting with Duke Ferdinando over his pension, which he then says (9 Oct.) has been paid. |
| Nov. 1620 | M. responsible for music for the Feast of S. Carlo Borromeo (4 Nov.) for the Milanese community in Venice. |
| 1621 | Two motets by M. included in Lorenzo Calvi (ed.), Symbolae diversorum musicorum (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). First, Second, and Third Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). |
| 25 May 1621 | M. provides music for a Requiem Mass for Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, sponsored by the Florentine community. |
| 1622 | One motet by M. included in Johann Donfrid (ed.), Promptuarii musici … pars prima (Strasbourg: Paul Ledertz). Fourth and Seventh Books of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). |
| 18 Jan. 1622 | Ercole Marigliani’s Le tre costanti (including intermedi with music in part by Monteverdi) staged in Mantua for marriage of Eleonora Gonzaga and Emperor Ferdinand II. In fulfilling the commission, M. also offers (27 Nov. 1621) Duchess Caterina a solemn Mass. |
| Oct. 1622 | M. seeks to aid Lorenzo Giustiniani in arranging a tour of Mantuan commedia dell’arte company to Venice. |
| 1623 | Lamento d’Arianna published with the two lettere amorose from the Seventh Book of Madrigals (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni); Lamento d’Arianna also included in anthology Il maggio fiorito (Orvieto: Michel’Angelo Fei and Rinaldo Ruuli). One motet by M. included in Pietro Lappi, Concerti sacri … libro secondo (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). Seventh Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). |
| April–May 1623 | Duke Ferdinando and Duchess Caterina visit Venice and are presumably attended by M. |
| July 1623 | Antonio Taroni notes M.’s disagreements with officials at St. Mark’s and offers him the post of maestro di cappella to King Sigismund III of Poland; M. has Taroni write to Duke Ferdinando for permission to take it. |
| 16 Aug. 1623 | M. directs music at the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, for the feast of S. Rocco. |
| Sept. 1623 | M. composes a madrigal to send to Duke Ferdinando. |
| after 1623 | M. denounced anonymously for expressing pro-Habsburg/Spanish sentiments. |
| 1623–24 | M. sends music to Cesare d’Este, Duke of Modena. |
| 1624 | Two madrigals by M. included in Madrigali del signor cavaliero Anselmi nobile di Treviso posti in musica da diversi eccellentissimi spiriti (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1624). Three arias by M. included in Carlo Milanuzzi, Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (repr. Venice: Alessandro Vincenti [first edition lost]). Three motets by M. included in Lorenzo Calvi (ed.), Seconda raccolta de sacri canti (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). |
| 24 April 1624 | M.’s father-in-law dies; legal disputes over the estate ensue. |
| Carnival 1624(?–1625) | Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (later included in the Eighth Book of Madrigals) performed in Venice at palace of Girolamo Mocenigo. |
| 1625 | Four motets by M. included in Leonardo Simonetti (ed.), Ghirlanda sacra … de varii motetti à voce sola. Libro primo (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni; repr. 1636). One motet by M. included in Francesco Sammaruco (ed.), Sacri affetti (Rome: Luca Antonio Soldi). |
| March 1625 | M. provides music for Crown Prince Władysław of Poland in Venice, including a Mass in St. Mark’s on 9 March. |
| 1626 | Letanie della Beata Vergine by M. (first published in 1620; later included in the Messa … et salmi, 1650) included in Lorenzo Calvi (ed.), Rosarium litaniarum Beatae V. Mariae (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). |
| 29 Oct. 1626 | Duke Ferdinando dies; succeeded by Duke Vincenzo II Gonzaga; Duchess Caterina returns to Tuscany. M. commissioned to set La finta pazza Licori for the resulting festivities; unfinished. |
| 1627 | One psalm setting by M. published in Giovanni Maria Sabino, Psalmi de vespere a quattro voci (Naples: Ambrosio Magnetta). One motet by M. first published in 1618 included in Johann Donfrid (ed.), Promptuarii musici… pars tertia (Strasbourg: Paul Ledertz). |
| 24 April 1627 | M. is busy on music at St. Mark’s for the vigil of the Feast of St. Mark (as probably occurred every year), as he reports to Alessandro Striggio (1 May 1627) when responding to a commission to set an unknown entertainment (in this letter, he also offers Striggio his setting of Armida abbandonata and music for Vespers or a Mass). |
| 15 or 16 July 1627 | M. provides music for the visiting Elector of Brandenburg (the latter staying incognito at the house of the English ambassador in Venice), and for First Vespers for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. |
| 16 Aug. 1627 | M. directs music at the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, for the feast of S. Rocco. |
| Aug. 1627 | M. begins work on music for proposed wedding festivities of Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de’ Medici; he has extended stays in Parma, to the annoyance of his employers. |
| 10 Sept. 1627 | M. rejects (via Alessandro Striggio) an approach from Duke Vincenzo II to return to Mantua; says that he is seeking a canonry in Cremona to secure his pension. |
| mid-Sept. 1627 | M.’s son, Massimiliano, imprisoned in Mantua by the Inquisition for reading a prohibited book; M. uses the gold chain received from Duchess Caterina for the Seventh Book of Madrigals to secure bail. |
| 7 Oct. 1627 | M. responsible for music for Feast of S. Giustina (commemorating the Venetian victory in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571; as probably occurred every year). |
| 25 Dec. 1627 | Duke Vincenzo II dies. |
| 1628–1629 | Heinrich Schütz visits Venice and meets M. |
| 1628 | Scherzi musicali a tre voci and Seventh Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). |
| March 1628 | Gli Argonauti, a mascherata with music by M. performed in Parma (?on the 5th). |
| 8 April 1628 | M. sets five sonnets by Giulio Strozzi (I cinque fratelli) in honor of Grand Duke Ferdinando II and Prince Giovanni Carlo de’ Medici for a banquet in the Arsenale, Venice. |
| Dec. 1628 | Wedding festivities in Parma for Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de’ Medici, including M.’s music for intermedi for Tasso’s Aminta (13 Dec.) and a tournament (21 Dec.). |
| 1629 | Three motets by M. (including a Salve Regina later published in Selva morale e spirituale) included in Lorenzo Calvi (ed.), Quarta raccolta de sacri canti (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). |
| Feb. 1630 | M. provides music for the nuns of S. Lorenzo, Venice. |
| 16 April 1630 | M.’s Proserpina rapita performed in the Mocenigo palace in Venice for the festivities celebrating wedding of Lorenzo Giustiniani and Giustiniana Mocenigo (one extract published in Ninth Book of Madrigals, 1651). |
| 8 June 1630 | Alessandro Striggio dies on diplomatic mission to Venice to seek aid in the War of Mantuan Succession. |
| 18–21 July 1630 | Sack of Mantua by Imperial troops. Plague in Venice (to 1631). |
| 9 March 1631 | M. takes Minor Orders; enters the priesthood on 16 April 1632. |
| 21 Nov. 1631 | M. provides music for the Mass of Thanksgiving celebrating the end of the plague in Venice. |
| 20 June 1632 | Scherzi musicali (second book; Venice: Bartolomeo Magni) dedicated by Bartolomeo Magni to Pietro Capello. |
| 1633 | One motet by M. first published in 1618 (then 1627) included in Luscinia sacra (Antwerp: Heirs of Pierre Phalèse). |
| 22 Aug. 1633; 2 Feb. 1634 | M. in contact with theorist Giovanni Battista Doni. |
| Dec. 1633 | M. gains a recommendation from Emperor Ferdinand II (in part because of music he has sent to Vienna) for a canonry in Cremona. |
| 1634 | Two arias by M. included in Arie de diversi (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti). |
| ?1636 | M. sends to Vienna the Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, the Ballo delle ingrate, and the ballo “Volgendo il ciel per l’immortal sentiero”-“Movete al mio bel suon le piante snelle” (published in the Eighth Book of Madrigals), plus other music, for possible performance there. |
| 1637 | One instrumental ballo by M. included in Pietro Millioni and Lodovico Monte, Vero e facil [sic] modo d’imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnola (Rome and Macerata: Heirs of Salvioni and Agostino Grisei). One motet by M. first published in 1622 included in Fasciculus secundus geistlicher wolklingender Concerten (Nordhausen: Nicolas Dunckern). |
| June 1637 | M. involved in a dispute with Domenico Aldegati, singer in St. Mark’s. |
| 1 Sept. 1638 | Eighth Book of Madrigals, titled Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti), dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand III. |
| 1639 | Sixth Book of Madrigals reissued (Antwerp: Heirs of Pierre Phalèse). |
| Carnival 1639–1640 | Arianna revived at Teatro S. Moisé; Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria performed at ?Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo. |
| 1640 | Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria performed in Bologna. |
| Carnival 1640–1641 | Le nozze d’Enea in Lavinia performed at Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria revived in Venice. |
| 1641 | Seventh Book of Madrigals reissued (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni). Sacred contrafacts of two settings by M. included (one each) in Ambrosius Profe (ed.), Erster Theil geistlicher Concerten und Harmonien (Breslau: Christoph Jacob) and Profe (ed.), Ander Theil geistlicher Concerten und Harmonien (Leipzig: Henning Kölern). |
| 7 Feb. 1641 | Vittoria d’Amore, a ballo, performed in Piacenza (Farnese territory). |
| 1 May 1641 | Selva morale e spirituale (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni) dedicated to Empress Eleonora Gonzaga. |
| 1642 | One psalm setting and the Pianto della Madonna (from the Selva morale e spirituale, 1640–41) and three sacred contrafacts (one of a madrigal in the Selva morale e spirituale) included in Ambrosius Profe (ed.), Dritter Theil geistlicher Concerten und Harmonien (Leipzig: Henning Kölern). |
| 17 Feb. 1642 | Singer Leonida Donati takes M. to court for non-payment of a contract for her and her daughter Silvia (to sing in an opera?) signed on 19 July 1640. |
| Carnival 1642–1643 | L’incoronazione di Poppea performed at the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo. |
| 1643 | Fifth Book of Madrigals reissued (Antwerp: Heirs of Pierre Phalèse). |
| Spring–summer 1643 | M. makes six-month trip to Lombardy and Mantua once more to guarantee his pension. |
| 29 Nov. 1643 | M. dies in Venice. |
| 1644 | Fourth Book of Madrigals reissued (Antwerp: Heirs of Pierre Phalèse). Giovanni Battista Marinoni publishes Fiori poetici raccolti nel funerale del molto illustre e molto reverendo Signor Claudio Monteverde (Venice: Francesco Miloco), comprising poetry and a eulogy commemorating M. |
| 1645 | One motet by M. included in Motetti a voce sola de diversi eccelentissimi autori (Venice: Bartolomeo [?Francesco] Magni). |
| 1649 | Six sacred contrafacts of madrigals by M. included in Ambrosius Profe (ed.), Corollarium geistlicher Collectaneorum (Leipzig: Timotheus Ritzsch). |
| 11 Dec. 1649 | Messa…et salmi (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1650) dedicated by Alessandro Vincenti to Odoardo Baranardi. |
| 1651 | L’incoronazione di Poppea performed by the Febiarmonici in Naples. One motet and one psalm setting by M. (the latter an ornamented version of a setting in the Messa … et salmi, 1650), included in Gasparo Casati, Raccolta di motetti (Venice: Francesco Magni). One motet by M. first published in 1625 included in Philipp Friedrich Böddecker, Sacra partitura (Strasbourg: Johann Heinrich Mittel). |
| 27 June 1651 | Ninth Book of Madrigals (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti) dedicated by Alessandro Vincenti to Gerolamo Orologio. |
| ?1662–1667 | Alessandro Vincenti publishes three Salve Regina settings a 3, the first of which is concordant with a setting in the Selva morale e spirituale, and all three of which may be by M. |