Music and Patronage in the Sforza Court (review)

Music and Patronage in the Sforza Court. By Paul A. Merkley and Lora L. M. Merkley. (Studi sulla storia della musica in Lombardia, 3.) Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1999. [xxx, 514 p. ISBN 2-503-50706-9. BEF 3200.]

These are heady times for research on Josquin Desprez. Paul and Lora Merkley have spent many hours in the archives of Milan recovering important new documents that have greatly altered the accepted view of Josquin's career and the chronology of his music; as a side benefit of their research, they have uncovered much new documentation for other singers employed in the chapel of the Sforza dukes of Milan from approximately 1470 to 1499. The Merkleys have previously published their findings on Josquin's biography in a series of articles beginning in 1994, but now the material is reworked, with added discussion of selected compositions by Josquin and contextualization of the documents within the Milanese courtly milieu. The sheer magnitude of new documentary material presented by the Merkleys is astonishing, and scholars will turn to this book as a mine of information on the careers of musicians active in Italy in the late fifteenth century.

The opening chapter offers a useful explanation of the system of benefices (paid positions in churches) and the different types of documents consulted in the study. The focus then turns to musicians under three Sforza patrons: chapters 2-4 deal with Galeazzo Maria Sforza (r. 1466-76), chapter 7 with the regency of his widow, Bona of Savoy, for their son Giangaleazzo (1477-80), and chapter 10 with the rule of Ludovico Sforza (1480-99). The most successful narrative occurs in chapter 2, which details Galeazzo's devious machinations to lure to his chapel the best singers from other courts, such as Naples and Savoy. Several chapel paylists are extant for the years 1473-80, and here a rather clearer picture of the chapel emerges than for the reign of Ludovico. For the latter, the Merkleys had to rely largely on notarial records that name individual singers in transactions regarding benefices. It seems that only a portion of the ducal singers surfaced in these records, and the running summary of documents in chapter 10 produces a rather dull narrative; nevertheless, the Merkleys provide valuable new details on the careers of singers in Milan in the 1480s and 1490s. Chapters 6 and 8 serve as brief interludes on music for particular occasions. Chapter 9 discusses the repertory and chronology of the four choirbooks prepared for the cathedral of Milan under the supervision of Franchinus Gaffurius.

The core chapters concern the biography of Josquin. In chapter 5, "Who Was Iudochus de Picardia?" the Merkleys establish beyond doubt that two distinct musicians named Josquin worked in Milan. The first, Iudochus de Picardia (alias Ioschinus and also Iudocus de Kessellia), served as a singer in the cathedral from 1459 to 1472, then moved directly to the chapel of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza. He remained in the ducal chapel until at least 1480 and died in 1498. The book culminates with chapter 11, "Jossequin Lebloitte dit Desprez, Son of Gossard," which turns to the career of the famous composer and presents half a dozen documents from 1484 and 1489 that provide his full name, "Iusquinus de Prattis." This Josquin arrived in Milan only in 1484 as a familiar of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, whom he presumably accompanied to Rome in the same year. He turned up in Milan again in the early months of 1489 in the service of Ludovico Sforza (p. 439). It should be noted that no documents concerning Josquin have come to light for the years 1485-88, yet the authors assume that he was in the service of Ascanio during this period. Caution is in order, given Josquin's itinerant career before arriving in Milan: from Aix-en-Provence in the late 1470s, he possibly moved to the court of King Louis XI around 1480, then on to Condé-sur-l'Escaut in northern France in...