Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

Yes, I believe this book should be dated 1698, not 1608 or 1628. Full reasons and defense of this date are published in an article for the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, but briefly stated:

1) James Tyler, in his recent book The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), is simply in error when he states that the date of 1608 is "clearly printed on the title pages of two of the three surviving copies" (p. 55). There are only two surviving copies--both of which I have closely examined in person--and neither has a complete date (for details, see below).

2)The book has a note on its cover that it can be purchased at the modern printing house of Giovan Francesco Paci near San Biase Maggiore (see below). The church to San Biase (Blase or Biagio)--located in the bookseller's district--was consecrated in 1631; before this time, there was no "San Biase Magg." Therefore, the book must date after 1628: either 1638 or 1698 (the top of a round numeral "3" or "9" is visible in the Naples copy, an "8" would be

3) Giovan. (or Giovanni) Francesco Paci began printing in Naples in 1659. There are no books printed in Naples by a Paci before then. Furthermore, the title page shows similarities to other books printed by Giovan. Francesco Paci in the 1690s and later.

Pico's book is thus a late pirated copy of a work by Pietro Millioni that exists now only in a later reprint (see Millioni 1661). Millioni printed many books in the 1620s and was probably no longer alive when this book, which is labelled "secondo il vero originale" ("according to the true original"), was reprinted. The stroke alignment in the Pico is so poor that the tablature is all but illegible--the

For performers: It would be best to avoid Pico's book--Millioni's works are much more trustworthy and easier to read.

Title: Nuova scelta di sonate per la chitarra spagnola. (Naples: Giovan. Francesco Paci, 16[9]8).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
62 pieces
Foliation: ABCD (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- F-Pn: 16 cm. (width) X 10.4 cm.; I-Nn: 15.9 cm. (width) X 10.1 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- NUOVA SCELTA DI SONATE PER LA CHITARRA SPAGNOLA, COMPOSTE DA FORIANO PICO . . . [title page; guitarist with footstool for left leg]:

p. (2) -- [hand with finger names; guitar with 5 string and 9 fret numbers]

p. 3 -- Regola per imparare ad accordar la Chitarra Spagnola. [tuning; tuning check]

pp. 4-6 -- [verbal alfabeto]:

 

[S, T, and Z are not actually used in the pieces.]

p. 7 -- LETTERE TAGLIATE:

[Dt is not actually used in the pieces.]

[Other chords used in the tablature:]

'

 

p. 8 -- [chord corrispondence chart]

p. 9 -- [trillo and repicco; strokes, dots, repeat signs; Millioni for complete description]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto only without measure lines, meter or rhythm signs. Since the upstrokes are placed on the horizontal line along with the numbers, they are often very poorly aligned and difficult to interpret (top of p. 31):

Note that the exact horizontal placement of strokes and letters does not carry any unusual rhythmic or metric meaning.

Songs (pp. 58-64) -- texts with alfabeto only

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

The contents of this book equal Millioni 1661 (and therefore the earlier Millioni book which is now lost) almost

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

Note: no meter is given in this book, but where it can be assumed it is given in [ ].

Index of Pieces (songs with text and alfabeto only):

Notes:
1. Note that these pieces added by Pico are the only ones not listed in the table of contents to the book and are also the only pieces titled as "for" a particular alfabeto chord. Return to text
2. These pieces equal songs in Pietro Millioni's Prima scielta di villanelle accomodate con l'intavolatura per cantare sopra la chitarra spagnola (Rome, 1627). Return to text

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 "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:

PACI, Giovan. Francesco [printer]
IN NAPOLI. Nella Stamperia di Giovan. Francesco Paci 16[9]8 / p. (1)

PICO, Foriano [composer]
NUOVA SCELTA DI SONATE PER LA CHITARRA SPAGNOLA, COMPOSTE DA FORIANO PICO . . . / 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 A/I [P 2311 and [PP 2311 (with incorrect dates and incorrectly showing an edition from Rome in the F:Pn)

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 55-58.

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

VI. Exemplars

F-Pn = France: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département

Condition: yellow rag-like paper with frayed edges; patched in several places; very dark

Binding: recent burnt-orange hard cover; worn spine and upper edges

Manuscript additions:
5 added folios at front
+f. 5r -- "Antonio di . . . Piocio [?] Sic [?] Miki Patria Est . . . [?] . . ." [ink, written over more writing; illegible]
"Reserve Vm7.505" pencil

p. (1) -- red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE IMPRIMES . . ." [illegible interior]

"IN [section missing!] Nella Stamperia . . ."

DATE: The bottom half of last line is missing all the way across, with a section around where the date would have been cut out [!] and missing entirely. The missing date has been added on a clear fabric patch, apparently from a copy of the I-Nn version (see below). Note that the date is filled in by hand in the Minkoff facsimile to read "1608" but is otherwise

p. 4 -- blue ink [recent?]: "Sol" after "Per far l'A", and etc.: B = Do, C = Re, D = La 3 minor, E = Re 3 minor, F = Mi, I = La
p. 17 -- red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE IMPRIMES . . ." [illegible interior]
[p. 41 -- mark matches facsimile exactly; facsimile of F-Pn not I-Nn?? or both?]
p. (65) -- added page? black ink [these rules merely repeat the fingerings for the alfabeto given in the book]:

+ Mi terza minore La 4 a due l'Annul. la 5 a 2 il medio
A Sol maj terza mag La 1a al 3 l'Auricol. la 2 al 3 l'annul.e La 5 al 2 con l'indice
B Do ma terza mag La 2a al 1 l'indice, La 4 al 2 medio, la 5 a 3 annulare
C Re maj terza mag La 1a a 2 medio, la 2 a 3 anulare, la 3 a 2 indice
D la terza min La 2 al 1 indice, la 3 a 2 anulare, la 4 a 2 medio
E Re terza min La 1 al 1 indice, la 2 a 3 anulare, la 3 a 2 medio
F Mi min terza mag. La 3 al 1 indice, la 4 al 2 anulare, la 5 a 2 medio
G Fa 1 e 2 al l'indice, la 3 a 2 medio, la 4 a 3 auric. la 5 a 3 anulare
H Si terza mag. La 1 a 1 indice, la 2 a 3 auric., la 3 a 3 anul., la 4 a 3 med., la 5 al anulare 1 il pol
J La terza maj. La 2 a 2 indice, la 3 e 4 a 2 indice
K
L [blue ink:] la 1 al 3 anular, la 2 al 4 minimo la 4 al 1. indice, la 5 al 3 medi.
M
N
O
P
Q
R

p. (66) -- blue ink [someone has written in the names of the notes on the fingerboard]:

4 more added folios at back

 

I-Nn = Italy: Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuelle III (visited in 1992)

N.B.: This book was formerly in the library of Werner Wolffheim (as listed in Johannes Wolf Handbuch der Notationskunde (1919), and was purchased by the I-Nn in the 1928 auction, as confirmed by correspondence with the library. My thanks to Monica Hall for calling my attention to the Wolffheim catalog.

Condition: very dark pages; very thin and fragile with stains and heavy imprint

Binding: recent marroon hard cover with gold letters on cover: "FORIANO PICO / Nuova Scelta di Sonate / per la Chitarra Spagnola "; scraped and torn; this is not the original binding

Manuscript additions:
Spine -- red on white tape: "BIBL. NAZ. [V.] Emanuele . . . H . . . / NAPOLI" [badly damaged]
Inside front cover -- tape as on spine with "S.Q LVI B 13" black "LVI B.13" pencil;

partially obscurred by tape in pencil:

. . . f dem Titelbatte lautet[?]
. . . stamperia di Giguan Francesco Paci 1608
. . . titel muss[?] es statt 1628 nei freu 1608

5 added folios at front
+f. 1r -- "1206" pencil [N.B.: this is the original Wolffheim auction catalog number.]

p. (1) -- bottom: top half of line missing as in F-Pn

DATE: The third number could be either a 0, 2, 3, or 9, based on the type font of the rest of the title page and the page numbers used in the book.

old ink: "S[clef sign?]ernner[??] ad . . . [?]. Consum S. Antomio . . . "
p. (2) -- black stamp: "R. BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE V.E.III. NAPOLI"
p. 17 -- stamped holes: "B.N." in right hand margin [complete through p. 64]
"455 [>> 4 in blue ink] 224"

5 added folios at back
+f. 5v -- "45 [5 >> 4].224" pencil
"Mus Prakl [?] / Ja. Jab. 11"

[no mark on p. 41!; facsimile of F-Pn with t.p. copy of I-Nn?]

A copy is available in microfilm and (unfortunately) in facsimile from Minkoff (1981). Note that the facsimile has been altered to make the date of 1608 appear original.