Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Francesco da Barberino

(b Barberino di Val d'Elsa, 1264; d Florence, 1348). Italian poet. He studied law in Bologna and in Florence, where he later practised as a notary, and also lived in Venice and in France. He wrote two didactic poems in Italian: Documenti d'amore (for which he provided an extensive Latin commentary; ed. F. Egidi, Rome, 1902–27), and Reggimento e costumi di donna (ed. C. Baudi di Vesme, Bologna, 1875). In these works information is given on the place of music in early 14th-century scholarship, education and individual and social life. There are also descriptions of the principal poetic and musical forms as well as references to dance, instruments and performing practice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M.P. Long: Musical Tastes in Fourteenth-Century Italy: Notational Styles, Scholarly Traditions, and Historical Circumstances (diss., Princeton U., 1981), 1

C. Franco: Arte e poesia nel ‘Reggimento e costumi di donna’ di Francesco da Barberino (Ravenna, 1982)

F. ALBERTO GALLO

Francesco da Lucca.

See Guami family, (2).

Francesco (Canova) da Milano [da Parigi, Milanese, Monzino]

(b ?Monza, 18 Aug 1497; d 2 Jan 1543). Italian composer and lutenist. He was a member of a family of musicians, including his father, Benedetto (d before 1 Sept 1555) and his elder brother Bernardino (d after 1562). The date of his birth is given in three horoscopes, the earliest in a marginal note by Girolamo Aleandro (dated 1525), the others published by Girolamo Cardano (Libelli duo … item Geniturae LXVII. insignes casibus et fortuna, Nuremberg, 1543) and Luca Gaurico (Tractatus astrologicus, Venice, 1552). Gaurico also wrote that Francesco was taught by Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa, though this cannot be confirmed; if it is true, the instruction must have occurred in Milan between about 1505 and 1510. Francesco spent most of his career in the orbit of the papal court. The earliest indication of his presence in Rome is a listing as ‘Franciscus mediolanensis’ or ‘de Millan’ among the ‘esquires’ in the roll of the papal household prepared in May 1514. He and his father were among the private musicians of Pope Leo X between October 1516 and December 1518, succeeded by Francesco alone until March 1521. In a letter of 14 March 1524 the Ferrarese ambassador to Rome mentioned Francesco's participation in a banquet attended by, among others, Baldessare Castiglione and Paolo Giovio. In the same year there is a record of a ‘Barbero che sona di liuto con Francesco’; it is not clear whether a North-African Berber or a barber (like the 15th-century lutenist Pietrobono) was meant.

It is not known when Francesco left Rome during this period; the last reference to him is as performing together with another lutenist and a viol player before Pope Clement VII and Isabella d'Este on 16 January 1526. In 1528 he obtained a canonry in S Nazaro Maggiore, Milan, which he ceded to his brother Bernardino in 1536. In early June 1528 his friend Francesco Berni addressed to him in Piacenza a capitolo, which shows him to have been in contact with the circle of Gian Matteo Giberti, papal datary and bishop of Verona, an important patron of music and of ecclesiastical reform. By this time Francesco's music had begun to circulate widely: an inaccurate version of one of his ricercares was printed in Paris by Attaingnant in 1529. Francesco may have been in Murano together with his brother in January 1530 (see Carlone), but there is no evidence that he was organist of Milan Cathedral in that year, as has been suggested. He served Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, nephew of Clement VII, between 1531 and 1535; in the latter year he is recorded in Rome as lute teacher to Ottavio Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III. In 1536 no fewer than five volumes wholly or largely devoted to Francesco's ricercares and intabulations appeared in Milan, Naples and Venice. A letter of Francesco della Torre shows that he was still in Rome on 4 August 1537. In that year Perino Fiorentino degli Organi, called Francesco's ‘creato’ (possibly meaning ‘pupil’, ‘servant’ or even ‘deputy’), became a private musician to Paul III. Francesco is listed as a member of the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese on 1 January 1538. In June he took part as a papal musician in the historic meeting at Nice between Paul III, Charles V and François I of France; the latter rewarded him richly ‘for playing the lute and other services’. It is not known when he may have earned the sobriquet ‘da Parigi’ (of Paris) that appears in the ascriptions to him in the Siena Lutebook (NL-DHgm 28 B 39), but a period in French royal service cannot be ruled out.

In July 1538 Francesco married the Milanese noblewoman Clara Tizzoni, who brought him a sizeable dowry. They lived in Milan at least until September 1538, and their son Lelio Donato, who did not pursue a musical profession, was born in April 1540. The final years of Francesco's life and the cause of his death are obscure, although he and his father are again recorded in papal service in early 1539. The date of his death is recorded only in Gaurico's horoscope, which states, ‘He died in 1543, in the 47th year of his age, the 4th month, the 15th day’; this has usually been read as indicating 15 April, but it is actually a precise statement of his age, indicating 2 January. In any case Francesco was dead by 21 September 1543, when his father made a will; the date of 1544, reported as being on the tombstone his father erected in S Maria della Scala, Milan, must be a mistranscription. His death is not recorded in the Registri dei morti of Milan for 1543, so it probably occurred somewhere else. A portrait of ‘Francesco del Liuto’ in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan (illus. in Slim, 1964), probably depicts Francesco da Milano, but other images that might portray him are doubtful.

Francesco's fame as a performer was great in his lifetime and long afterwards; he became an emblem of the musician who ravishes the souls of his hearers, and his name attained an almost proverbial status like those of Pietrobono and Bakfark. Some of his ricercares and fantasias, now his most highly regarded works, are probably written-down equivalents of his celebrated improvisations; but as a composer he was chiefly prized in the 16th century for his intabulations of vocal works, as Vincenzo Galilei attested in his Fronimo (1568, 1584). More of his music is preserved than of any other lutenist of his time, in sources originating in all parts of Europe and dating from 1529 to 1615, and his printed music was still for sale as late as 1662 (MischiatiI); but it is unlikely that he was directly associated with any of the sources of his music except perhaps the earliest printed collection devoted to him, the undated Intabolatura da leuto (see Pavan, forthcoming). The high regard in which he was held by his contemporaries is shown by the number of works by later lutenists that are based in one way or another on his; an unprecedented phenomenon in the genre.

Francesco's style, transitional between the idiomatic, rhapsodic looseness of his predecessors and the strictly imitative formalism of many successors, had a powerful influence on instrumental composition in the mid-16th century. It is especially characterized by the manipulation and development of short melodic motifs within a ‘narrative’ formal outline of great flexibility and balance. Many formal techniques were adopted from vocal music of Josquin's generation, such as contrast between high and low duos (sometimes extending to pair-imitation), parallel 10ths between outer parts and fauxbourdon texture before cadences. Although Francesco never pursued the exclusively imitative style typical of the vocal music of his own time, he occasionally concentrated on a single subject throughout a whole piece, creating some of the earliest examples of the monothematic ricercare (see especially the pair nos.33–4 in Ness's edn). Ness (1986) has very plausibly suggested that some of Francesco's works were first composed in parts in mensural notation. The eloquence of Francesco's music makes as powerful an impression now as it did in his own time, and he must be ranked among the finest composers of the 16th century.

WORKS

for 1 lute or vihuela unless otherwise stated

Editions: The Lute Music of Francesco Canova da Milano (1497–1543), ed. A.J. Ness, HPM, iii–iv (1970) [N] Francesco da Milano: Opere complete per liuto, ed. R. Chiesa (Milan, 1971) [C]

91 ricercares or fantasias, N nos.1–36, 38–91, 95 (inc.); nos.1–17, 19, 26, 42, 67, 87a, 88–91, 95 (complete; C i, 155); also in Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto … libro primo [secondo] della Fortuna (Naples, 1536/R), several with alternative versions (see C i for variants); nos.33–4 also in GB-HAdolmetsch II.C 23, I-COc 1.1.20, Berlin, Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms.40032 [now in PL-Kj]; no.36 also in Des chansons … reduictz en tablature de lut … livre cinquiesme (Leuven, 1547), Carminum pro testudine … liber quintus (Leuven, 1547) [both now in Kj]; no.38 also in GB-HAdolmetsch II.C 23

7 ricercares or fantasias, HAdolmetsch II.C 23, I-CFVd s.s., COc 1.1.20, Berlin, Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms.40032 [now in PL-Kj]

Fantasia, 2 lutes, I-CFVd s.s.

Tirate per fare la mano molto legiadre, CFVd s.s.

Tochata, N no.92

Canon, 2 lutes, N no.93

Spagna, 2 lutes, N no.94; also in I-Ra 1608 (inc.), Berlin, Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms.40591 [now in PL-Kj]

Intabulations of 3 motets, 24 chansons, 2 madrigals, N nos.96–124; nos. 97–102, 104–9, 111 also in Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto … libro primo della Fortuna (Naples, 1536/R)

Intabulations of Crainte et sospir (P. Guerrero or J. Baston), O envieulx qui de mon infortune (Maistre Jhan or De Latre; inc.), attrib. Francesco in text of V. Galilei, Fronimo dialogo (Venice, 1568, 2/1584^15)

doubtful and misattributed works

9 ricercares, fantasias or preludes, N appx nos.22–9, 31

Intabulation of Benedicta es (Josquin), N appx no.30 (anon. in source, associated with fantasia, N no.87b)

Intabulation of Ultimi miei sospiri (Verdelot) in Galilei, Fronimo, ?= the one attrib. Francesco in text

Fantasia, N no.37, is by Perino Fiorentino

see also Slim (1965)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DBI (‘Canova, Francesco’; A. Lanfranchi)

MGG1 (H.C. Slim)

H. Omont: ‘Journal autobiographique du Cardinal Jérôme Alēandre (1480–1530)’, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale et autres bibliothèques, xxxv (1896), 1–116, esp. 8

E.A. Wienandt: Musical Style in the Lute Compositions of Francesco da Milano (diss., U. of Iowa, 1951)

O. Gombosi: ‘A la recherche de la forme dans la musique de la Renaissance: Francesco da Milano’, La musique instrumentale de la Renaissance: Paris 1954, 165–76

H.C. Slim: ‘Francesco da Milano (1497–1543/44): a Bio-Bibliographical Study’, MD, xviii (1964), 63–84; xix (1965), 109–28

Y. Giraud: ‘Deux livres de tablature inconnus de Francesco da Milano’, RdM, lv (1969), 217–19

O. Cristoforetti: Introduction to G.A. Casteliono: Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori, Milano, 1536 (Florence, 1979) [facs. of RISM 1536¹⁰]

O. Tajetti: Introduction to Pietro Paolo Raimondi: Libro de sonate diverse, 1601 (Como, 1980) [facs. of I-COc 1.1.20]

J.McW. Meadors: Italian Lute Fantasias and Ricercars Printed in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century (diss., Harvard U., 1984)

A.J. Ness: The Herwarth Lute Manuscripts at the Bavarian State Library, Munich (diss., New York U., 1984)

R. Toft: ‘An Approach to Performing the mid 16th-Century Italian Lute Fantasia’, The Lute, xxv (1985), 3–16

A.J. Ness: ‘The Siena Lute Book and its Arrangements of Vocal and Instrumental Part-Music’, Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986, 30–49

P. O'Dette: ‘Some Observations about the Tone of Early Lutenists’, ibid., 87–88, 90

A. Ness: Introduction to Francesco da Milano: Intavolatura da viola o vero lauto, I–II (Geneva, 1988) [facs.]

A. Ness: Introduction to Tablature de luth italienne dite Siena Manuscript (ca. 1560–1570) (Geneva, 1988) [facs. of NL-DHgm 28 B 39]; see also review by D. Fabris, JLSA, xx–xxi (1987–8), 165–70

O. Cristoforetti: Introduction to Pier Francesco Valentini: Il leuto anatomizzato (Florence, 1989) [facs. of I-Rvat Barb.lat.4433]

M.G. Genesi: ‘Il “corpus” di danze rinascimentali manoscritte di Anonimo alla Collegiata di Castell'Arquato’, Archivio storico per le province parmensi, xlii (1990), 515–37

S. Mengozzi: ‘Is this Fantasy a Parody? Vocal Models in the Free Compositions of Francesco da Milano’, JLSA, xxiii (1990), 7–17

F. Pavan: ‘Ex paupertate evasit: Francesco da Milano et sa famille’, Le concert des voix et des instruments à la Renaissance: Tours 1991, 316–70

F. Pavan: ‘Francesco Canova and his Family in Milan’, JLSA, xxiv (1991), 1–14

F. Pavan: ‘Il ritratto di liutista della Pinacoteca Civica di Como’, Bollettino della Società Italiana del Liuto, x (1993), 10 (only)

P. Canguilhem: Les deux éditions de ‘Fronimo’ (1568 et 1584) et la place du luth dans la pensée musicale de Vincenzo Galilei (diss., U. of Tours, 1994)

M. Caffagni and F. Pavan: Introduction to Perino Fiorentino: Opere per liuto (Bologna, 1996)

V.A. Coelho: ‘The Reputation of Francesco da Milano (1497–1543) and the Ricercars in the Cavalcanti Lute Book’, RBM, 1 (1996), 49–72

R. Harmon: ‘Listeners in Depictions of Orpheus and (?) I Francesco da Milano’, The Lute, xxxvi (1996), 17–36

F. Rossi: ‘Pacolini da Borgotaro versus Pacalone da Padova: Francesco da Milano nell'antologia di Castelfranco Veneto’, Trent'anni di ricerca musicologica: studi in onore di F. Alberto Gallo, ed. P. Dalla Vecchia and D. Restani (Rome, 1996), 167–96

F. Pavan: Francesco Canova da Milano (diss., U. of Milan, 1996–7)

V.A. Coelho: ‘Authority, Autonomy, and Interpretation in Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music’, Performance on Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela, ed. V.A. Coelho (Cambridge, 1997), 108–41, esp. 108–19

M.G. Carlone: Images of Lutenists in the Italian Cinquecento (Paris, forthcoming)

F. Pavan: Introduction to Francesco da Milano: Intabolatura da Leuto (Sala Bolognese, forthcoming) [facs.]

FRANCO PAVAN