Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This book has basically the same contents as Abatessa 1637, with a few minor differences.

Title: Cespuglio di varii fiori, Overo Intavolatura de Chitarra Spagnola. . . (Orvieto: Gio. Battista Robletti, 1635)

Description:
32 pp. in movable type
48 pieces; 5 songs
Foliation: A [4 ff.] B [incompletely numbered]
Page Size -- GB-Lbl: 17.2 cm. (width) X 11.4 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- CESPUGLIO DI VARII FIORI, Overo Intavolatura de Chitarra Spagnola. . . . DI GIO. BATISTA ABATESSA. BITONTINO. IN ORVIETO, Ad instantia di Gio. Battista Robletti. 1635. [t.p.]

pp. 2-3 -- [alfabeto chart, tablature and verbal:]

 

 

p. 4 -- Corrispondenza, ò vero ottava sopra di tutte le lettere, per sonare in diverse. [corrispondence chart A-Z]

Scala per B molle per sonar la Chitarra:

[Scala per B quattro]

 

p. 5 -- Regola facilissima per accordare . . . [tuning; strokes, dotted strokes, repeat signs]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines (solo guitar, pp. 6-15).

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial; information in parentheses

Index of Pieces (solo guitar only):

 

Index of Genres:

The following chart summarizes the solo guitar contents of the book by genre. Major genres are given by the form used in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., with the forms actually used in the book in parentheses. Lesser known titles are grouped under "miscellaneous dances" and "songs." Rhythmic variations and rotte are considered part of the main work.

Index of Keys Used:

Keys used in the book; an * indicates that the key is only used in a passacaglia. Note that the pitch is relative and that since the guitarist was using tablature, there was no need to think in terms of traditional key signatures.

 

Index of Names:

ABATESSA, Gio. Batista [composer]
CESPUGLIO DI VARII FIORI, Overo Intavolatura de Chitarra Spagnola. . . . DI GIO. BATISTA ABATESSA. BITONTINO. . . . / p. (1) [t.p.]

ROBLETTI, Gio. Battista [printer]
CESPUGLIO DI VARII FIORI, Overo Intavolatura de Chitarra Spagnola. . . . IN ORVIETO, Ad instantia di Gio. Battista Robletti. 1635. . . . / p. (1) [t.p.]

V. Bibliography

Boye, Gary R. "Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy" (diss., Duke Univeristy, 1995).

________. "Performing Seventeenth-Century Italian Guitar Music: the Question of an Appropriate Stringing" in Performance on Lute, Guitar and Vihuela: Historical Practice and Modern Interpretation, ed. V.A. Coelho (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Cavallini, Ivano. "Sugli improvvisatori del Cinque-Seicento: persistenze, nuovi repertori e qualche riconoscimento." Recercare: Rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica 1 (1989): 23-40.

Hudson, Richard. Passacaglio and Ciaccona: From Guitar Music to Italian Keyboard Variations in the 17th Century (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1981).

Lospalluti, Leonardo. "Considerazioni su Giovan Battista Abatessa e su un manoscritto per chitarra del seicento a Bitonto." Il Fronimo: Rivista trimestrale di chitarra e liuto 17: 67 (April 1989): 27-33.

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [A 4

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 59, 87, 184.

Weidlich, Joseph. "Battuto Performance Practice in Early Italian Guitar Music." Journal of the Lute Society of America 11 (1978): 63-86.

VI. Exemplars

GB-Lbl = Great Britain: London, The British Library (visited in 1992)

Condition: very thin paper; dark stains and off-center printing; mildew stains in back but legible

Binding: recent black material hard-cover with red label and gold: "ABATESSA / CHITARRA &c. / 1635"

Manuscript additions:
Cover: brown tape: "K.1" and "a8"

2 added folios at front

+f2v -- "K.1.a.8" pencil
"a47" pencil, partially erased

p. (1) -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"
p. 32 -- red stamp: "2 JY [18]50"