Early Music Advance Access originally published online on October 5, 2005
Early Music 2005 33(4):639-646; doi:10.1093/em/cah154
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The partbooks of a Florentine ex-patriate: new light on Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Ms. Magl. XIX 164–7
Joshua F. Drake is Assistant Professor of Music and Humanities at Grove City College, Pennsylvania. His dissertation, written under the supervision of Warwick Edwards at the University of Glasgow, is on the relationship between words and music in motets of the late 15th century. jfdrake{at}gcc.edu
The seminal collection of early 16th-century polyphony, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Ms. Magl.XIX 164–7, has often been cited for its usefulness, both in terms of chronology and content. The enigmatic emblems found in the bassus partbook, however, have not yet been identified. The article explores some of the reasons why the emblems might rightly be associated with the Buonaparte family and, perhaps, with Clement VII's long-standing friend and advisor, Jacopo Buonaparte. To make such an association would begin to explain the geographical dispute surrounding these partbooks, which consist of a Roman binding, Florentine script and Florentine paper.
Key Words: Florence • Rome • Clement VII • Jacopo Buonaparte • emblems