Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This edition is almost identical to Millioni/Monte 1678. The stroke alignment remains very poor.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venetia: Giacomo Zini, 1684).

Description:
48 pp. in movable type
51+ pieces [+18 songs]
Foliation: ABC (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: 15.4 cm. (width) X 9.8 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, . . . IN VENETIA, Per Giacomo Zini. 1684. Con Licenza d'Superiori. [title page; equals Millioni/Monte 1652, but with a roughly-drawn guitar pointing to the left; guitar has 5 strings, 4+ pegs, 5 frets]

pp. (2)-18 -- [equals Millioni/Monte 1673a]

[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:]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines. Horrible stroke alignment. Repeat signs are a flower symbol and the end is marked "fine." Songs on pp. 50-62: with text only and no alfabeto.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces:

Notes:
1. This piece should have come after the Ballo del Monte Verde on p. 21. 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:

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)

ZINI, Giacomo [printer]
. . . IN VENETIA, Per Ciacomo [sic] Zini. 1684. / 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).

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

VI. Exemplars

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

Condition: Heavily mildewed pages with tattered corners; still fairly legible (except p. 6: very light print); pp. 14-16 partially uncut; p. 16 large reddish spot.

Binding: Thick white cardboard (but thinner than Millioni/Monte 1678); spine partially cracked, binding shows through.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- white tape: "AA 353" over "AA353" in ink; "Milioni Pietro e Lodovico Monte / Chitarra Spagnuola / Venetia,
1684" in ink
Spine -- blue tape: "353"

p. (1) -- ink, top left: "5315"; black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"
p. 48 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA"

 

US-Wc = United States: Washington, DC, Library of Congress, Music Division (visited in 2010)

Condition: Thin paper with hard imprint but in fairly good shape; some foxing

Binding: Modern red leather hardbound cover
gold letters on spine: "MILIONI CHITARRA SPAGNUOLA 1684"
white stamp on cover: "MT 582 .M7 V4"
4 added folios in front; 4 in back
original binding present; very dark and worn but still intact

Manuscript additions:
Original front cover, pencil: "176749"
Original inside cover, ink (in one hand):
"Gioseppe Marchetti da Nocera.
Barbiano Marchetti da Nocera.
Girolamo Marchetti da Nocera.
Questo li 26 di maggio ----- 1693
Giesu e Maria vidono il cuori e lannima mia co[rpa?] . . . [pen tests and a final line, difficult to read]
p. 1 pencil: "184/452"
p. 2, pencil: "MT 582 .M7V4 Case" and "176749"
inside back cover, ink: "Gioseppe Marchetti"