Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This is the second of two tablatures by Benedetto Sanseverino and the one most widely known . . .

Title: Il primo libro d'intavolatura per la chitarra alla spagnuola. (Milan: Filippo Lomazzo, 1622)

Description:
(8) + 64 pp. in movable type
93 pieces
Foliation: (A) [4 ff.] BCDE [8 ff. each]
Page Size -- GB-Lbl: 17.3 cm. (width) X 22.9 cm.; I-Bc: 17 cm. X 22 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

f. 1r -- IL PRIMO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA Per la Chitarra alla Spagnuola DE PASSACALLI, CIACCONE, SARAVANDE, Spagnuolette, Folie, Pavaniglie, Pass'e mezzi, Correnti, Et altre varie suonate. DI BENEDETTO SANSEVERINO. Di nuovo ristampato, con aggionta d'alcune Canzonette dal Istesso Autore per cantare in detto stromento. Opera Terza. . . . IN MILANO, Appresso Filippo Lomazzo. M.DC.XXII. [title page]

f. 1v -- QUIS E HUMILI. / AT . EXALTABITU [printer's banner]

f. 2r -- [dedication = Sanseverino 1620 except signed:] 4 Febraro 1622 . . .

f. 2v -- A VIRTUOSI SPIRITI . . .[explanation of tablature]

f. 3r -- [explanation, cont.]

f. 3v -- ESSEMPIO PER CONOSCER La Minima, Semiminima, Croma . . . [half, quarter, eighth notes explained; tuning: GG C F A d in bass clef]

f. 4r -- Modo d'accordare la Chitarra alla Spagnuola [tuning]

f. 4v -- ALFABETTO. Dal qual s'imparano á conoscere tutte le consonanze della Chitarra alla Spagnola, necessario da pratticarli da quelli che vogliono imparare á suonare detto instromento . . . [alfabeto]:

 

[The following chords are not used: g, l, m, and n.]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto, stroke, rhythm and meter signs are used, as well as barlines.

Instrument(s): 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces (all for solo guitar):

 

Index of Pieces (songs with text and guitar accompaniment--no melody):

Index of Genres (solo guitar only):

The following chart summarizes the 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:

CRIPPA, Marco
(Poi che vo l'amor) Al Signor Marco Crippa / p. 58

LOMAZZO, Filippo [printer]
IN MILANO, Appresso Filippo Lomazzo. M.DC.XXII. / f. 1r [t.p.]

MALDURA, Francesco
Balletto. Dedicato al Signor Francesco Maldura / p. 59

SANSEVERINO, Benedetto [composer]
IL PRIMO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA Per la Chitarra alla Spagnuola . . . DI BENEDETTO SANSEVERINO . . . / f. 1r [t.p.]

Di Milano il dì 4. Febraro 1622. Di V.S. Molto Magnifica. Affettionatiss. Servitore Benedetto Sanseverino. / f. 2r [dedication]

SENAGO, Cleophas [dedicatee]
Al Molto Mag. Sig. mio osservandiss. IL SIG. CLEOPHAS SENAGO / f. 2r [dedication to]

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).

BUC (The British Union Catalog), Edith B. Schnapper. The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music Printed before the Year 1801: A Record of the Holdings of Over One Hundred Libraries throughout the British Isles. London: Butterworths, 1957.

Danner, Peter. "Giovanni Paolo Foscarini and His 'Nuova Inventione.'" Journal of the Lute Society of America VII (1974): 4-18.

Eisenhardt, Lex. "Bourdons as Usual." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 1-37.

Hall, Monica. "Sanseverino's Alfabeto Songbook." Lute Society of America Quarterly XLVI:1 (Spring 2011): 19-23.

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 A/I [S 887 and [SS 887

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 58-59, 86.

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: clean white pages with good edges -- some ink spotting but very legible; thick paper; some stains towards back

Binding: recent red/blue marbled with black corners and spine; on spine in gold letters: "SANSEVERINO. IL PRIMO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA. MILANO 1622"

Manuscript additions:
Spine: "K.1" and "g13" [brown tape]
1 added folio at front
+f. 1v -- "d6" [pencil; marked out]; "K.1.g.13" [pencil]

f. 1r [t.p.] -- "d.6" [pencil; marked out]
f. 1v [w/ tree] -- "BRITISH MUSEUM" [red stamp]
f. 2r bottom -- "1623. Il di 24. Genaro in Milan corta di S:/:di d.a mo.ta [?]" [brownish ink; old]

p. 33 -- l.2 m.4 bt.1: quarter note > eighth note [brownish ink]
p. 42 -- l.2 m.5 bt.1: G in patch [also in I-Bc?]
p. 43 -- l.3 m.5 bt.1: B with 2 downstrokes blacked out for B with 1 downstroke [black ink]
p. (64) -- "BRITISH MUSEUM 8 JA 79" [red stamp; 1879]

1 folio added at back

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

Condition: very dark stains on lower right page edges throughout; much bleeding (i.e., p.45) but still fairly legible

Binding: dark grey paper

Manuscript additions:
Front Cover: "BB.306" [tape]; "Sanseverino Benedetto / Primo libro d'intavolatura per la Chitarra / Spagnuola -- Opera terza. Milano / 1622"
Binding: "BB306" [tape]

f. 1r [t.p.] -- stamp: "BIBLIOTECA DEL LICEO MUSICALE DI BOLOGNA"
[p. 17 numbered twice; p. 19 skipped]
[p. 29 numbered twice; p. 31 skipped]

p. 33 -- st.2 m.4: quarter note > eighth note [ink] eighth note erased for quarter note
p. 44 -- st.3 m.1: C [G?] > D [ink]

p. (64): "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI/ BIBLIOTECA/ BOLOGNA" [stamp]

A copy is available in microfilm.

 

I-Mca = Italy, Milano, Archivio Storico Diocesano (Curia Arcivescovile di Milano), Biblioteca

2 leaf fragment; not yet visited.