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^[*] Martin Morell (mmorell42@gmail.com) is an independent musicologist and singer with a longstanding interest in the Italian madrigal of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and in Venetian music and musicians of the period, in particular Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Giovanni Croce. Most recently, his research has centered on the compositions and biography of Tiburzio Massaino. This Communication follows up on his article in JSCM cited in n. 3 below.

^[1] The letter is preserved in the library of the University of Erlangen; a digitized version is available online at https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:29-bv043953621-0. It was inventoried in a little-known catalog by Eleonore Schmidt-Herrling, Die Briefsammlung des Nürnberger Arztes Christoph Jacob Trew (1695–1769) in der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen, Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen 5 (Erlangen: Universitätsbibliothek, 1940), 387 (accessible online at https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:29-bv007329242-0). I am extremely grateful to Dr. Barbara Eichner for bringing the document to my attention.

^[2] The phrase tien servitù con in the letter is here translated as “is familiar with,” a reading supported by the eighteenth-century Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca and other authorities. It could have the more literal meaning of “is in the service of,” if “service” is construed in this context as characterizing a relationship between social peers. I thank dott.ssa Licia Mari for her help in elucidating the term.

^[4] See, for instance, Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (DBI), s.v. “Massaino (Massaini), Tiburzio” (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2008), 71:691–94.

^[5] Based on the date given in the dedication of Massaino’s Liber primus cantionum ecclesiasticarum … quatuor vocum of 1592 (RISM M 1276).

^[6] Massaino’s name does not appear in the extensive records of payments to salaried musicians cited by Adolf Sandberger, Beiträge zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle unter Orlando di Lasso, vol.3, part 1 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1895; reprint, Walluf bei Wiesbaden: Sändig, 1973), in particular 194–214. Furthermore, as Barbara Eichner notes, it is unlikely that Massaino would have been taken on, given that the Bavarian court chapel was reduced in 1592. See Horst Leuchtmann, Orlando di Lasso: Sein Leben (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1976), 211.

^[7] There remains the problematic issue of a now-lost portrait of Massaino, formerly possessed by the monastery of S. Agostino in Cremona and described by Francesco Arisi in Cremona literata, vol. 2 (Parma: Typis Pauli Montii, 1706), 455. According to Arisi, the portrait bore the inscription Tiburtius Massainus Cremon. Rodulphi Imp. Phonascus 1590. The inscription cannot now be corroborated, and the veracity of the position attributed to Massaino is questionable; the quoted date can be regarded as suspect.

^[8] Zacconi and Massaino had evidently become acquainted during the latter’s stay in Venice more than a decade previously. Years later, Zacconi praised Massaino’s abilities as a contrapuntalist in his Prattica di musica, Seconda parte (Venezia: Appresso Alessandro Vincenti, 1622), 130. See also Martin Morell, “Musical Settings of sestine as Markers of Rites of Passage, with Particular Reference to the Marriage Celebrations for Bianca Capello and Francesco de’ Medici,” paper presented at Interdisciplinary Conference “Venice and Ritual” (Princeton University, 11-12 January 2014).

^[9] Munich court payment records indicate that Zacconi was a salaried “Tenorist” for the entire year 1591; see Sandberger, Beiträge zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle, 197.

^[10] See Carmelo Peter Comberiati, Late Renaissance Music at the Hapsburg Court (New York: Gordon & Breach, 1987), 56. Nor is Massaino to be found in Michaela Zackova Rossi, The Musicians at the Court of Rudolf II: The Musical Entourage of Rudolf II (1576–1612) Reconstructed from the Imperial Account Ledgers (Prague: Koniasch Latin Press, 2017); thanks to Barbara Eichner for pointing this out.

^[11] The infinitive form esse has the alternative meaning “to eat”; perhaps Massaino is referring to dining at Monte’s home.

^[12] In the same dedication, Massaino included some revealing details about his imprisonment in Salzburg. He recounts that he used a nail to scratch the music into the margins of his Breviary, making ink from wine and coals (Exarabam eas [lucubrationes] … ferreo et clavo in Breviarij marginibus: Atramento non communi … ex vino et carbonibus). Furthermore, he claims to be unaware of the precise reason for his imprisonment (quidem eo tempore, quod me in vincula coniecit, non ullo demerito meo prorsus, sed an arcano fato, nescio; which could be rendered as, “indeed, during that time when they put me in chains, not at all because of any shortcoming of mine, but perhaps because of some secret misfortune, I know not”). Massaino’s phrasing is a bit cryptic, but (assuming that his purported ignorance is genuine) it prompts the speculation that the charge of sodomy might have been trumped up, perhaps by rivals who wanted to be permanently rid of him.

^[13] In any case, after the date given in the dedication of the Sacri modulorum concentus (see par. 2.1 above).

^[14] Perhaps Monte brokered an introduction; he had dedicated his Primo libro de’ madrigali spirituali a sei voci of 1583 (RISM M 3318) to Johann Fugger, and the two had evidently met, since Monte thanks him for his hospitality in Augsburg the previous year. See Stefanie Bilmayer-Frank, Illustri ac generoso Domino: Gedruckte Musikalienwidmungen an die Familie Fugger im 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhundert, Veröffentlichungen der Schwäbischen Forschungsgemeinschaft, Reihe 4, Band 37 / Studien zur Fuggergeschichte, Band 46 (Augsburg: Wissner-Verlag, 2016), 267–68 and 273–74, for the texts of Massaino’s and Monte’s dedications respectively.

^[15] Franz Herre, Die Fugger in ihrer Zeit, 12th ed. (Augsburg: Wissner-Verlag, 2005), 104–5.

^[17] By Adam Gumpelzheimer at St. Anna and Gregor Aichinger at SS. Ulrich and Afra respectively; in addition, Hans Leo Hassler was employed as organist by another family member, Octavianus Secundus Fugger. I thank Barbara Eichner for calling my attention to these circumstances. For an extensive account of the musical activities of these composers, see Alexander J. Fisher, Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 1580–1630, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004; reissue, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016), passim.

^[18] See Herre, Die Fugger in ihrer Zeit, 113–14; also Bilmayer-Frank, Illustri ac generoso Domino, 269–70, for Massaino’s dedication.

^[19] For details, see in particular Theodor Kroyer’s biographical introduction to Gregor Aichinger: Ausgewählte Werke (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1909), 48.

^[20] Unfortunately, no record of the exact date of the ceremony seems to survive; if it fell within the first half of the year, Massaino would likely have received the invitation while in Prague, but if later, he was quite probably in transit to Cremona (in which case perhaps the invitation did not reach him in timely fashion).

^[21] If in fact Massaino returned to Cremona from Prague (see below), his route could well have taken him via the Fuggers’ city.

^[22] Specifically, the aforementioned Sacri modulorum concentus, Sacrae cantiones sex vocibus … liber primus, and Liber primus cantionum ecclesiasticarum quatuor vocum. The dates of the dedications of these three works span a little more than a month; one might infer that Massaino was capable of producing large amounts of music in relatively short periods of time.

^[23] As I noted in “Tiburzio Massaino and Vincenzo Gonzaga,” Massaino’s brother Luca was resident in Cremona, and had interceded on his behalf to try to secure Massaino’s release from prison in Salzburg.

^[24] I-CRas Notarile, filza 3172 (notaio Ippolito Bianchi Cantarini), unfoliated, where his name appears (in sixth place in a list of 29 friars in attendance) as “frater tiburtius de Cremona.” The same name occurs in two subsequent similar entries that month (on 26 August, where it is seventh in a list of 32, and again on 30 August, where it is sixth out of 28). The assumption that this friar is indeed the composer is buttressed by the fact that the name is absent from another list of 17 attendees at a chapter meeting on 5 May 1598—I-CRas Notarile, filza 3174 (notaio Ippolito Bianchi Cantarini), unfoliated—by which time Massaino had evidently relocated to Piacenza (see below). Also, from an examination of notarial records it appears that the name Tiburtius/Tiburtio was not a particularly common one in Cremona at that time.

^[27] According to his short biography in the database of medical letters maintained by the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, www.aerztebriefe.de/pe/00000026. Thanks to Barbara Eichner for calling my attention to this resource.

^[28] Mermann treated Orlando di Lasso for “varig melangolley” (true melancholy), and Lasso in turn dedicated his Madrigali a quattro, cinque et sei voci of 1587 (RISM L 981) to him. Mermann is also the dedicatee of Monte’s Sacrarum cantionum cum quatuor vocibus … Liber primus of 1596 (RISM M 3325). For a subtle interpretation of Lasso’s melancholy, see Richard Freedman, “Listening to Melancholia: The Chansons of Orlando di Lasso,” Revue belge de musicologie 72 (2018): 173–91.

^[29] The dedication also reveals that Mermann was a music-lover and singer himself, since Massaino mentions “the enjoyment with which you both listen to and sing my works” (il gusto, con che ella [i.e., Mermann] suole & udire, & cantare le opere mie). Mermann may also be eulogized, albeit indirectly, in the madrigal “In quest’ amata riva / Son’ io salce felice” (no. 2 in the Quarto libro a cinque), whose peculiar text features—probably uniquely in the madrigal literature—a willow-tree speaking in the first person. The medicinal properties of willow bark had been known since Hippocrates’s time and would have been familiar to Mermann as to any contemporary physician. See also Barbara Eichner, “ ‘Surely the muses loved him’: The Physician Thomas Mermann (1547–1612) and His Medical-Musical Networks,” paper presented at the 50th Medieval and Renaissance International Music Conference (MedRen 2022), Uppsala University, July 2022.

^[30] At the opposite end of the spectrum, in the dedication to his Sette sonetti penitenziali of 1596 (RISM C 4483), Giovanni Croce claimed that he settled upon the dedicatee only after the music had been completed and heard by friends and colleagues. Croce’s claim might have been disingenuous but must have seemed plausible; see Martin Morell, introduction to Sette Sonetti Penitenziali and Sacred Madrigals, in Quatercentenary Edition of the Sacred Works of Giovanni Croce, vol. 13 (Weingarten (Baden): Edition Michael Procter, 2010), ii. Additionally, some cases of collaboration between composers and men of letters in the preparation of dedications have been documented; see in particular Arnaldo Morelli, “Un amico di Frescobaldi: Lelio Guidiccioni, uomo di lettere, connoisseur d’arte e di musica,” in A fresco: Mélanges offerts au professeur Etienne Darbellay, ed. Brenno Boccadoro and Georges Starobinski (Bern: Lang, 2013), 47–62, and the references cited there; also Jane Bernstein, “Financial Arrangements and the Role of the Printer and Composer,” Acta musicologica 63 (1991): 39–56. I thank Lorenzo Bianconi for calling my attention to these studies.

^[31] According to Murphy (“Reforming Medicine,”157), Camerarius did not keep copies of his correspondence.

^[32] Regarding future dedications to the Fuggers, Massaino is no doubt referring to his forthcoming Primus liber missarum sex vocibus (see above). As for the duke, given that no publication matching the description can presently be identified, Massaino may be stretching the truth—or perhaps he is referring to a single composition, the two-part madrigal “Chiaro e famoso Heroe,” apparently an encomium of Wilhelm, which was to appear in print a few months later in his Quarto libro a cinque.

^[33] The most high-profile of these musicians would have been Friedrich Lindner, cantor at the church of St. Egidien and prolific editor of Italian music, who had published two pieces by Massaino in his Sacrae cantiones cum quinque, sex et pluribus vocibus of 1585 (RISM 1585|1) and another in Bicinia sacra of 1591 (RISM 1591|27); and Kaspar Hassler, organist at St. Lorenz, the brother of Hans Leo Hassler. I thank Barbara Eichner for providing this information.

^[34] Or by other recipients of similar letters that Massaino may have written, and which may not have come down to us.

^[35] How Massaino, in his capacity as Augustinian monk, was able to finance such journeys remains a mystery.

^[36] See n. 24 above. He was still in Cremona at the beginning of June 1596, when he dedicated his Sacrae cantiones sex vocibus … liber secundus (RISM M 1279) to Ottavio Affaitati, a prominent member of a Cremonese patrician merchant/banker family. The Affaitati lent money to various European royal houses, traded in a variety of commodities (gems, fine fabrics, spices, dyes, carpets, etc.), and had business interests throughout Europe; in particular, their agents were in contact with those of the Fuggers. It is possible, therefore, that Massaino’s dedication embodied an indirect avenue of approach to the Fugger family or other potential patrons beyond the Alps. See J[ean] Denucé, Inventaire des Affaitadi banquiers italiens à Anvers de l’année 1568, Collection de documents pour l’histoire du commerce 1 (Antwerp: Éditions de “Sikkel,” 1934), in particular 51–53.

^[37] The DBI article on Massaino speculates that he may have taken up residence in Piacenza in June 1597, following the death of Luigi Roinci, maestro di cappella at the cathedral, but cites no supporting documentary evidence. It may be noted that none of Massaino’s three music prints from the period of his stay in Piacenza—the Tertius liber missarum quinque vocibus of 1598 (RISM M 1280); Musica super Threnos Ieremię Prophetę … quinque vocibus of 1599 (RISM M 1282); and Hymni totius anni … quatuor vocibus of 1599 (no RISM number)—sheds light on his position. Furthermore, the place given in the dedication of the Musica super Threnos is “Placentiæ Ex Ædibus nostris” (“from our home”—perhaps the Augustinian monastery of S. Lorenzo?), which suggests that Massaino was not employed at the cathedral, and indeed that he may not have held a formal post. Also, the dedicatees of all three publications are relatively obscure Italian clerics.

^[38] His aforementioned Motectorum quinque vocibus liber quartus of 1599 is dedicated to Johann Benedikt März von Spruner, abbot of Benediktbeurn, while the Missarum octonibus vocibus liber primus of 1600 has Paulus Widmann, abbot of Tegernsee, as its dedicatee. It is not possible to know whether Massaino’s letter to Camerarius played an eventual role in facilitating these contacts.