In sixteenth-century Italy, Rome ranked second only to Venice as an important center for music book production. Throughout the century, printers in the Eternal City experimented more readily and more consistently with the materiality of the book than their Venetian counterparts, who, by standardizing their printing methods, came to dominate the international marketplace. The Romans' ingenuity and willingness to meet individual clients' needs resulted in music editions in a broader array of shapes and sizes, employing a wider range of printing techniques. They became "boutique" printers, eschewing the run-of-the-mill in favor of tailoring production to varied market demands. Accommodating the diverse requirements of their clientele, they supplied customized volumes, which Venetian presses either could not--or would not--produce. In Printing Music in Renaissance Rome, author Jane A. Bernstein offers a panoramic view of the cultures of music and the book in Rome from the beginning of printing in 1476 through the early seventeenth century. Emphasizing the exceptionalism of Roman music publishing, she highlights the innovative printing technologies and book forms devised by Roman bookmen. She also analyzes the Church's predominant influence on the book industry and, in turn, the Roman press's impact on such important composers as Palestrina, Marenzio, Victoria, and Cavalieri. Drawing on innovative publications, Bernstein reveals a synergistic relationship between music repertories and the materiality of the book. In particular, she focuses on the post-Tridentine period, when musical idioms, both new and old, challenged printers to employ alternative printing methods and modes of book presentation in the creation of their music editions. Of interest to musicologists, art historians, and book historians alike, this book builds on Bernstein's previous work as she continues to chart the course of music and the book in Renaissance Italy.

An exciting interdisciplinary study based on new literary, historical, and bibliographical evidence, this book will appeal to students and scholars of the Italian Renaissance, the Reformation, and the history of the book.

Jane A. Bernstein presents the first broad study of the cultures of music and the book in Rome during the Renaissance and Post-Tridentine periods. Emphasizing the exceptionalism of Roman music publishing, she highlights innovative technologies, milestone publications, and the close connection between musical repertories and the materiality of the book. She also analyzes the Church's predominant influence on the industry and, in turn, the impact of the Roman press on such important composers as Palestrina, Marenzio, Victoria, and Cavalieri.

This book collects twelve of the papers given at a conference held at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., on 1-3 April 1993, in conjunction with the exhibition `Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture'. A group of distinguished scholars considered music in medieval and Renaissance Rome. The volume presents a series of wide-ranging and original treatments of music written for and performed in the papal court from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. New discoveries are offered which force a radical reevaluation of the Italian papal court as a musical centre during the Great Schism. A series of motets for various popes are subject to close analysis. New interpretations and information are offered concerning the repertory of the papal chapel in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the institutional life of the papal singers, and the individual biographies of singers and composers. Thought-provoking, even controversial, evaluations of the music of composers connected with, or thought to be connected with, Rome and the papal court, such as Ninot le Petit, Josquin, and Palestrina round out the volume.

In 1540 Antonio Lafreri, a native of Besançon transplanted to Rome, began publishing maps and other printed images that depicted major monuments and antiquities in Rome. These prints--of statues and ruined landscapes, inscriptions and ornaments, reconstructed monuments and urban denizens--evoked ancient Rome and appealed to the taste for classical antiquity that defined the Renaissance. Collections of these prints came to be known as the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the "Mirror of Roman Magnificence." Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the University of Chicago Library's Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the largest collection of its kind in the world, The Virtual Tourist in Renaissance Rome places these prints in their historical context and examines their publishing history. Editor Rebecca Zorach traces their journey from their creators and publishers to pilgrims, collectors, antiquarians, and dealers--"virtual tourists" who, over several centuries, revisited and reinvented the Renaissance image of Rome. A marvelous exploration of a rich collection of engravings and etchings, this illustrated volume will fascinate anyone interested in Renaissance Rome, the history of print collecting, the reception of antiquity, and tourism.

Winner of the 2020 Bainton Prize for Reference Works This volume, edited by Pamela M. Jones, Barbara Wisch, and Simon Ditchfield, focuses on Rome from 1492-1692, an era of striking renewal: demographic, architectural, intellectual, and artistic. Rome’s most distinctive aspects--including its twin governments (civic and papal), unique role as the seat of global Catholicism, disproportionately male population, and status as artistic capital of Europe--are examined from numerous perspectives. This book of 30 chapters, intended for scholars and students across the academy, fills a noteworthy gap in the literature. It is the only multidisciplinary study of 16th- and 17th-century Rome that synthesizes and critiques past and recent scholarship while offering innovative analyses of a wide range of topics and identifying new avenues for research. Committee's statement "The volume includes a multidisciplinary study of early modern Rome by focusing on the 16th and 17th centuries by re-examining traditional topics anew. This volume will be of tremendous use to scholars and students because its focus is very well conceptualized and organized, while still covering a breadth of topics. The authors celebrate Rome’s diversity by exploring its role not only as the seat of the Catholic church, but also as home to large communities of diplomats, printers, and working artisans, all of whom contributed to the city’s visual, material, and musical cultures". Roland H.Bainton Prizes Contributors are: Renata Ago, Elisa Andretta, Katherine Aron-Beller, Lisa Beaven, Eleonora Canepari, Christopher Carlsmith, Patrizia Cavazzini, Elizabeth S. Cohen, Thomas V. Cohen, Jeffrey Collins, Simon Ditchfield, Anna Esposito, Federica Favino, Daniele V. Filippi, Irene Fosi, Kenneth Gouwens, Giuseppe Antonio Guazzelli, John M. Hunt, Pamela M. Jones, Carla Keyvanian, Margaret A. Kuntz, Stephanie C. Leone, Evelyn Lincoln, Jessica Maier, Laurie Nussdorfer, Toby Osborne, Miles Pattenden, Denis Ribouillault, Katherine W. Rinne, Minou Schraven, John Beldon Scott, Barbara Wisch, Arnold A. Witte.

First published in 1999, the essays that follow have been selected from the author's writings to explore musical institutions in 15th and 16th century Italy with a detailed focus on the papal choir, but with additional comments on Mantua (Mantova), Florence and France. Much of the material which formed the basis of those essays was largely drawn from archives. Richard Sherr explores diverse areas including the Medici coat of arms in a motet for Leo X, performance practice in the papal chapel during the 16th century, the publications of Guglielmo Gonzaga, Lorenzo de' Medici as a patron of music and homosexuality in late sixteenth-century Italy.