Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This book relates closely to the expanded version of Vero e facil modo first presented in Millioni/Monte 1644. The stroke alignment is quite poor, however, and there are more errors, including faulty pagination. The only surviving copy appears to be incomplete after p. 48 (there is no index as would be expected, so the songs with text found in the 1644 edition are missing).

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venetia: Giacomo Bortoli, 1652).

Description:
48 pp. in movable type
51+ pieces [incomplete?]
Foliation: AB (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: 14.5 cm. (width) X 9.4 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, . . . In Venetia, Presso Giacomo Bortoli. 1652. Si vende à Santa Giustina in Corte di Cavalli. [title page]

p. 2 -- [new hand with fingers labelled; same guitar from p. (1) but upside down; guitar larger with arched back and 12345 over frets; 10 pegs and 5 ? strings]

pp. 4-5 -- [contents = Millioni/Monte 1637 but reversed (p. 4 with chords M through P2/V; p. 5 with D-L)]

pp. 6-10 -- [contents = Millioni/Monte 1637 except p. 8: hands used for repeat signs, not flowers]

[Alfabeto:]

[The K, P, Q, R, V, and X chords are not used.]

[Alfabeto Straordinario: works with same pieces as normal alfabeto, but with A-c#-f#-c-e' tuning:]

p. 32 -- ALFABETTO ET INTAVOLATURA / Per la Chitarra alla Spagnuola [additional alfabeto for C and D fascicles]:

[Verbal Alfabeto (with fingerings):]

 

[The +, K, N, Q, S, T, V, X, Y, Z, &, Con, and Ron chords are not used in this section (pp. 33-48).]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no rhythm signs or barlines. Meter signs are used only on pp. 33-48. Repeat signs are a hand symbol and the end is marked "fine."

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial; information in parentheses ( ) is from the table of contents.

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

Notes:

1. This piece should have come after the Ballo del Monte Verde on p. 21. Return to text

2. The pages are labelled incorrectly from this point onwards; the existing order of the pages is shown. Return to text

3. The book is incomplete after this page and appears to be missing the section of songs and the contents list, as in Millioni/Monte 1644. Return to text

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:

BORTOLI, Giacomo [printer]
In Venetia, Presso Giacomo Bortoli. 1652. Si vende à Santa Giustina in Corte di Cavalli / p. (1)

MILIONI, Pietro
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

MONTE, Lodovico
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILLIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

V. Bibliography

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

Boye, Gary R. "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).

Boye, Gary R. "The Case of the Purloined Letter Tablature: The 17th-Century Guitar Books of Foriano Pico and Pietro Millioni." Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 11:1 (2005).

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

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM B/VI/2 p. 586

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 86.

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

VI. Exemplar

I-Bc = Italy: Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale G. B. Martini (visited in 1991-1992)

Condition: Pages with ragged edges and somewhat mildewed, but legible; f. 1 torn.

Binding: Recent white cardboard folder; last fascicle loose and possibly out of order.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- white tape: "AA 349" over "AA349" ink; blue tape: "349"; in ink: "Milioni Pietro e Monte Lodovico / Vere & facil modo d'imparare a sonare et accordare / la chitarra spagnuola / Venetia, 1652"

p. (1) -- ink, top left: "5311"; black stamp [upside down]: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"
p. 38 [?] -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA" . . . ?