Claude V.

Palisca

HUMANISM
IN
ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE
MUSICAL
THOUGHT

Yale University Press

New Haven and London

Humanism in Italian Renaissance

Musical Thought

To tile memory of my motller

Gisella Fleisch/lacker Palisca (1895-1944)

I'ublishcd wilh .1SsUtanCr from the Louis 51t'", Memori;al Fund.

Copyright 4) 1985 by Yale UniversilY. All righls reserved. This book
may 1101 br reproduced. in whole or in pUI. ill ;any form (beyolld
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L.t w .and c"cepl by rc:viewers for II\!: public prcss). wilhout wrinc:n
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Type. I)rilllell in the United 51311:5 of America by Edwards Brothers.
Inc . Ann Arhor. Michigan.
Library of Congrcss Cataloging ill I)ublicatioll Dala
l'alisC:I. Claude V.
Humanism in h.alian Rm.:aissance musical thOllghl
Bibliognphy: p.
Includc.'S index.
I. Music-haly-15th century-History ;and criticism. 2. Musich.:aly-16th cmlury-History .and crilicism. 3. nen;aissance-haly. 4.
Humanism. I. Tide.

ML2'JeI.2.1)34 1985781.745 as-8ICJO

ISDN 0-300-03302-8
The paprr in Ihis book meets thr guidelincs for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevily of Ihe Council on Libnry Resources.

10

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Contents

Preface

xi

ONE

Introduction: An Italian Renaissance in Music?

TWO

The Rediscovery of the Ancient Sources

23

THREE

The Earliest Musical Humanists: Pietro d'Abano

51

FOUR

The Earliest Musical Humanists: Giorgio Valla

67

FIVE

The Earliest Musical Humanists: Carlo Valgulio

88

The Proem to Plm:lrch's De tllllsica

A Reply to an Opponent of Music
The Translation of the De IHilsica of Plutarch

SIX

The Early Translators: Burana, Lconiceno, Augio

111

Giovanni Fr:mcesco Burana

Nicolo Leoniceno
Giovanni Battista Augio

SEVEN

Antonio Goga va

133

Ptolemy's Harmotlics
Pseudo-Aristotlc's De alldibiliblls
Aristoxcnus' Harmonic Elements
Bomigari's Corrections

vii

viii

Contents

Contents

EIGHT

Harmonics and Disharmonies of the Spheres

TWELVE

161

Ugolino of Orvieto
Giorgio Anselmi
Franchino Gaffurio
Gioseffo Zarlino
Johannes Tinctoris
Francisco de Salinas
Giovanni Battista Benedetti
Celestial Harmony as Myth and Metaphor

The Poetics of Music

191

226

ELEVEN
Johannes Gallicus
Erasmus of Horitz
Giorgio Valla
Nicolo Leoniceno
Franchino Gaffurio
Gioseffo Zarlino
Francisco de Salinas
Girolamo Mei
Vincenzo Galilei
The Tonoi and the Waning of Modality
Giovanni Bardi
Giovanni Battista Doni

Music as Poetry
Vincenzo Galilci
The Poetics of Imitation
The Case against Mimesis: Francesco Patrizi
Expressing the Affections

369

FOURTEEN

Franchino Gaffurio
Hamos de Pareja
Giovanni Spataro
Lodovico Fogliano
Gioscffo Zarlino
Francisco de Salinas
Girolamo Fracastoro
Giov:mni Battista Benedetti
Girolamo Mei and Vincenzo Galilci

Greek Tonality and Western Modality

333

THIRTEEN

TEN

The Ancient Musica Speclliativa and

Renaissance Musical Science

A Natural New Alliance of the Arts

Grammar
Mei on tonic accent
Pietro Bembo

NINE

GatTurio as a Humanist

ix

280

Theory of Dramatic Music

Francesco Patrizi
Girolamo Mei
Jacopo Peri

408

Works Cited

435

Index

453

Preface

Music historians have long been aware of a link between the revival of
ancient learning and the changes in musical style and theory that occurred
during the Renaissance. But the ties to antiquity have been hard to pin
down. because ancient music could not be recreated as could ancient literature and architecture. Instead. the objects of revival were ancient attitudes
and thoughts about music. The route by which these reached Renaissance
musicians and critics has not been studied with any precision or thoroughness. Indeed. the men most rt.'sponsible for the transmission of Greek thought
about music have been practically ignored. Their names. some of which
head chapters or sections in this book-Pietro dAbano. Giorgio Valla.
Carlo Valgulio. Antonio Gogava. Francesco Burana. Nicolo Leonicenoare missing from even the most comprehensive accounts of the musical
culture of the Renaissance.
This book aims to document the debt that Renaissance musical thought
owes to ancient. particularly Greek. musical thought and to trace its path
of transmission in Italy. I have had to rely almost entirely on primary
sources. Because of this necessity. the previous literature on musical humanism and on music in the Renaissance has been given less attention than
it truly deserves. Therefore I want to express here my debt to those who
earlier explored musical humanism and lighted my way, particularly Edward E. Lowinsky. PaulO. Kristeller. Nino Pirrotta, Leo Schrade, D. P.
Walker. and Edith Weber, for I have learned enormously from them.
In general the field has been dominated by the hunt for parallels between
musical manifestations and those in other ans and humanities that show a
strong reliance on ancient models. But even where parallels have been found.
there has been little direct evidence of relationships among the composers.
writers. philosophers. architects. and artists whose work is involved. I
cannot claim to have discovered many such associations either, so the search
must continue, for where no direct connections can be shown. the con-

xi

xii

Preface

current trends. like parallel lines. never meet. and we can learn little from
simply contemplating the striking analogil'S. I have avoided drawing such
parallels. limiting myself to those connections between music and ancient
thought that we know existed in the minds of Renaissance men because
they are recorded in writing. These considerations. too. explain why I have
not allocated much space to past literature on musical humanism. As a
consequence of this approach and the interdisciplinary scope of my study.
the secondary literature referred to in the footnotes is restricted to those
works that were specifically utilized for the material in the text. and the
bibliography lists only these.
Some chapters may strike the reader as almost anthologies of extracts
from Renaissance writings on music and related subjects. Since so many of
the works quoted are unpublished or extremely rare. this was the only way
I could let my authors speak for themselves. And since none of them wrote
in English. I wanted to let the reader experience the power of their own
words. with the aid of parallel translations. Whenever possible the material
in the two columns corresponds line for line. consequences of which are a
certain literalness and a ragged format. The translations are my own except
where I have indicated otherwise.
Many organizations and individuals have generously supported my research over the years. It was begun in Florence on a Guggenheim Fellowship
and completed on a second one twenty years later. In between. a Senior
Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Humanities permitted a year
in Paris at the remarkable collection of Renaissance books of the Bibliotheque Nationale. The Whitney Griswold Fund of Yale University aided
the preparation of the manuscript. And. of course. the Yale libraries. p~r
ticularly the Music Library and the Beinecke: Rare Book and Manuscnpt
Library. provided a solid home base for my investigations.
Several of my students at Yale have helped me during various stages.
joseph DiGiovanni. of the Renaissance Studies Program. transcribed parts
of Leoniceno's translation ofPtolemy's Harmonics. Deborah Narani. of the
Medieval Studies Program. checked my translations of Pietro d'Abano's
commentary on the pseudo-Aristotle Problems. Otto Stein mayer. of the
Classics Depanment. reviewed most of my translations from Latin and
made many essential improvements in them.
Of the many colleagues to whom I feel indebted. I should name seve~al.
jon Solomon. of the University of Arizona. kindly made available his translation ofCleonides' Harmonic introduction. Frank d' Accone, of the University
of California, Los Angeles, and james Haar. of the University of North
Carolina, contributed to my thinking with their learned commentaries on
my first chapter when it was delivered as a lecture in honor of A. Tillman
Merritt's retirement from Harvard. Thomas J. Mathiesen, of Brigham Young

Preface

xiii

University. enriched and enhanced this book in many ways. by lending me

microfilms of Greek manuscripts that once belonged to Giorgio Valla. by
letting me use some of the information in the catalog of Greek manuscripts
of music theory he is preparing for the RepertOire imernationale des sources
musicales, by reviewing my translations of the Latin versions of Greek treatises by Burana. Leoniceno. Gogava. and Augio and offering many provident corrections and excellent suggestions. and. finally. by reading and
commenting on the entire manuscript. To these scholars I. and the reader
too. owe sincere thanks.
Among others who have stood behind this work. I give special thanks
to Edward Tripp. Editor-in-Chief of the Yale University Press. for his
encouragement and interest. to jean van Altena for her very attentive reading
and sympathetic editing. to Michael Pepper and jay Williams for their
resourceful recoding and production of the manuscript from its electronic
state. to my daughter Madeline for her punctilious drafting of the index.
and to my wife. Jane. for advice on many matters. big and small. and for
her confidence and unfailing support.
Branford October 1984

It

ONE

Introduction: An Italian Renaissance in Music?

istorians generally view the Renaissance as a movement

that began in Italy and spread northward. Music historians. however. have habitually begun the study of music
in the Renaissance with composers associated with France
Jnd the Low Countries. Gustave Reese organized his book
lHIIsi( i" th,' R"lldiSSI1I1((' on the premise that a central musical language arose in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in France. the
Low Countries. and Italy. and spread to Spain. Portugal. Germany. England. and eastt:rn Europe. In the first part of the book he defines this language
in terms of the music of Dufay. Busnois. and Ockeghem. who were active
principally in the north. 1
Similarly Howard Mayer Brown takes the view that music in the: Renaissance "is a northern art. or at least an art by northerners. All of the great
composers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries were born in what
is today northern France. Belgium. and Holland.":
Thus. while the impetus for the Renaissance in the visual arts. literature.
and philosophy is generally recognized to have come from Italy and moved
across the Alps, we are confronted in music history with the thesis that
music. of all artistic expressions. moved in the opposite direction. Now
contrary motion may be a praiseworthy polyphonic practice. but it is disconcerting when applied to cultural historiography. If history in general
has a proverbial "problem of the Renaissance." how much more acute it is
in music history!
Heinrich Besseler. reflecting on his own work in Renaissance studies since
I. Gustave: R.e:rse. MIlS;( ;11 IlIr RtI,a;ssalltt (New York. 1954). Pt. I.
2. Howard Mayer Brown. ''''lIs;( ;11 tI,r R.."a;ssallcr (Englewood Cliffs. 1976). p. 4. Leo
Schrade:. in "Renaissance: the Historical Conception of an Epoch." K"'~~TfssB('r;("t drT IIII(r.
IIa/;ollalt Gtstllscl,aft fiir Mllsikll;swrstl",,,,fi. Utrtc/It 1951 (Amsterdam. 1953). pp. 19-32. took
a similar view: "In contrast to the bonae lillerae and to the visual arts as well. the rebirth of
music came to pass as an achievement of northern composers ... " (p. 3U) .