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Costanzo Festa'sGradus ad Parnassum

Richard J. Agee

Early Music History / Volume 15 / October 1996, pp 1 - 58

DOI: 10.1017/S0261127900001510, Published online: 05 December 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0261127900001510

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Richard J. Agee (1996). Costanzo Festa'sGradus ad Parnassum. Early Music
History, 15, pp 1-58 doi:10.1017/S0261127900001510

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Early Musk History (1996) Volume 15

RICHARD J. AGEE

COSTANZO FESTA'S
GRAD US AD PARNASSUM*

In September of 1536, the papal singer and composer Costanzo

Festa wrote a letter to his Florentine patron Filippo Strozzi.
Festa, having heard about a music printer in Venice, hoped to
contact him there through one of Strozzi's agents. He continued:
Have him [the printer] understand that if he wants my works, that is,
the hymns [and] the Magnificats, I do not want less than one hundred
fifty scudi and, if he wants the basse, two hundred in all. If he wants
to print them, he can place the hymns and Magnificats in a large book
[choirbook format] like that of the fifteen Masses [Antico's Quindecim
missarum, RISM 15161], so that all choirs would be able to make use
of them. The basse are good for learning to sing in counterpoint, to
compose and to play all instruments.1

Two years later the composer once again referred to his works
in a petition to secure a printing privilege from the Venetian
Doge and Signoria:

* I would like to thank Msgr Richard J. Schuler for allowing me access to materials he
possessed on microfilm; I am also indebted to Tim Barnes, Jane A. Bernstein, Bonnie
J. Blackburn, the late Howard Mayer Brown, Herbert Kellman, Lewis Lockwood, Carol
L. Neel, Anthony A. Newcomb, Jessie Ann Owens, Richard J. Sherr and Claudio Simoni
for assistance, and to the Executive Committee of the Humanities at The Colorado
College for financial support. Earlier versions of this paper were presented during 1991
at a meeting of the Seventeenth Century Group of Colorado College; the Rocky Mountain
Chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society, University of Northern Colorado,
Fort Collins; the 26th Annual International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo;
and the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in Chicago.
' 'Intendere ch« se vole le mie oppere cio e li hymnj li magnificat chio non voglio
mancho de cento et cinquanta scutj et se vole le basse ducento in tutto et volendo
stampare potra meter li hymnj et li magnificat in un libro grande come quello de
le .15. mjsse per chf tuttj li chorj se ne potranno servire le basse sono bone per
Imparare a cantar a comtraponto a componere et a sonar de tuttj li strumentj'; letter
of 5 September 1536, now in Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Strozziane, Ser. v,
1209, i, 84, reproduced and transcribed in my 'Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal',
Journal of the American Musicological Society (hereafter JAMS), 38 (1985), pp. 232-4;
recently reprinted in Venice: A Documentary History, 1450-1630, ed. D. Chambers and
B. Pullan with J. Fletcher (Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, Mass., 1992), pp. 374-5.

1
 Richard J. Agee
With humility Your Serenity is asked to deign to concede to the very
loyal and most virtuous domino Costantino Festa, musician and singer
of Our Lord, that he be allowed to have printed his musical works -
that is, masses, motets, madrigals, basse, contraponti, lamentations and
any of his compositions - with a privilege [and] that anyone else, for
a period of ten years, may not print the aforesaid works, nor sell prints
[of them] in this city, nor in any other part of the territory or locations
of this Illustrious Dominion.2
Festa's mention of his musical compositions, such as hymns,
Magnificats, masses, motets, madrigals, and lamentations, seems
straightforward enough, but the identification of the basse and
contraponti has proven elusive.
Nevertheless, a theoretical source from the following century
provides valuable evidence about these mysterious, apparently
unpublished compositions by Festa. In the second part of his
Prattica di musica of 1622, Lodovico Zacconi acknowledged the
long-departed Costanzo Festa for having supplied a cantus firmus
with which the theorist published a second voice in invertible
counterpoint at the tenth. Zacconi discussed the history of this
melody in his chatty way:
Note that the above cantus firmus, made of breves, is called 'Bascia'.
1 could not have investigated why it is so called and has such a name,
were it not that one day, [when I was] discussing [this] with a professor
of music, he told me to notice that it must be a certain cantus
firmus on which the aforementioned Costanzo Festa once wrote 120
counterpoints. If students were able to get hold of them, it would be
very useful to put them into score to learn about many beautiful things
that must be contained and hidden therein.3
2
An appendix to the supplication carries the date of 29 March 1538, and indicates
that on this day the Venetian Senate voted in favor of Festa's ten-year privilege, 125
for, 4 against, with 4 abstentions. The document may be found in Venice, Archivio
di Stato, Senato Terra, registro 30 (1538-9), fols. 9 r -9 v (30r-30v), as transcribed by
Richard J. Agee in 'The Privilege and Music Printing in the Sixteenth Century',
diss., Princeton University, 1982, pp. 208-9: 'humilmente si supplica vostra serera'ta
si degni conceder al fideltfrimo et molto virtuoso, Domino Constantino festa musico,
et cantore di Norfro Signore ch'el possi far stampar le sue opere di musica, cio e messe,
mottetj madrigali, basse, contraponti, lamentation, et qualunqae delle composition sue,
con privilegio che alcun altro per anni .X. non possi imprimer, ne impresse vender
in questa cita o in qual si voglia delle terre, et luoghi di questo Wlustrissimo Dominio
le opere preditte.' See also R. J. Agee, 'The Venetian Privilege and Music-Printing
in the Sixteenth Century', Early Music History, 3 (1983), p. 28; and another transcrip-
tion in M. S. Lewis, Antonio Gardano Venetian Music Printer, 1538-1569, vol. i (New
York, 1988), p. 673.
3
'Nota che il superior Canto fermo fatto di Breue chiamandosi Bascia, non ho potuto
inuestigare per che lo chiami cosi, ed habbia tal denominatione, se non che; vn di
ragionando io con vn profossor [sic] di Musica mi disse, auertite, che debb'essere vn
certo Canto fermo, sopra il quale il predetto Costanzo Festa fece vna volta cento e
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

However vexing the term 'Bascia' might have been for Zacconi,
the tune had been around for centuries and can easily be ident-
ified. This cantus firmus was a basse danse tenor, a musical line
on which to improvise or compose polyphonic elaborations. The
basse danse (It. bassadanza) had become popular in court circles
both in France and in Italy by the middle of the 1400s and
disappeared about a century later.4 Most of the music preserved
for the basse danse appears slow and monophonic, but scholars
now believe that instrumentalists would have improvised more
rapid counterpoints above this slow tenor cantus firmus.5 Zac-
coni's cantus firmus had been employed as the basis for elabor-
ation since the middle of the fifteenth century. The internationally
known melody existed incognito as (among other designations)
'La Spagna', 'Spanier tantz', 'Tenore del re di Spagna', 'Castille
la novele', and — more important for our purposes — 'La basse
dance de Spayn' and 'La bassa castiglya' (see Example I). 6

venti Contrapunti. Cosa che se li Scolari li potessero hauere, vtilissimo li sarebbe a

partirli per impararui sopra molte belle cose che dentro vi debbano esser contessute
e nascoste', from L. Zacconi's Prattica di musica seconda parte (Venice, 1622; repr.
Bologna, 1967: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. n, no. 2), p. 199.
See D. Heartz, 'The Basse Dance: Its Evolution circa 1450 to 1550', Annales Musicolo-
giques, 6 (1958-63), pp. 287-340, and his article 'Basse danse', The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians (London, 1980), vol. n, pp. 257-9. Heartz maintained that
after the middle of the sixteenth century the basse danse had virtually disappeared
(the well-known French dance commentator Arbeau had remarked around 1588 that
'les basses dances sont hors d'usage depuis quarante ou cinquante ans'; see Heartz,
'The Basse Dance', p. 312).
In publications from 1929, both Erich Hertzmann and Otto Kinkeldey proposed that
the basse danse melodies were simply tenors used as the basis for polyphonic improvis-
ation; see the former's 'Studien zur Basse danse im 15. Jahrhundert, mit besonderer
Beriicksichtigung des Briisseler Manuskripts', Zeilschrift fur Musikwissenschaft, 11 (1929),
pp. 411-12, and the latter's 'A Jewish Dancing Master of the Renaissance (Guglielmo
Ebreo)', Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects in Memory of Abraham Solomon
Freidus (New York, 1929; repr. Farnborough, Hants, England, 1969), p. 355. Willi
Apel discussed some surviving examples of the polyphonic treatment of these tunes
in 'A Remark about the Basse Danse', Musica Disciplina, 1 (1946), pp. 139-43. See
also M. Bukofzer, who explored the tune as the basis of polyphonic variations in 'A
Polyphonic Basse Dance of the Renaissance', Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Music
(New York, 1950), pp. 190-216. In his edition entitled Compositione di Meser Vincenzo
Capirola, Lute-Book (circa 1517) (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1955), pp. xxxvi-lxiii, O. O. Gombosi
detailed many of the uses for this melody from the fifteenth century onward, not
only as a basse danse but also as a cantus firmus for pedagogical purposes. Daniel
Heartz approached the performance practice of basse danse realisation in his 'Hoftanz
and Basse Dance', JAMS, 19 (1966), pp. 13-36.
It seems that this melody was the only tune to bridge the French and Italian basse
danse repertories; see Bukofzer, 'A Polyphonic Basse Dance', passim; Frederick Crane,
Materials for the Study of the Fifteenth Century Basse Danse, Institute of Medieval Music
Musicological Studies, 16 (Brooklyn, 1968), esp. pp. 72-5.
 Richard J. Agee
Example 1. 'La Spagna' as it appears in Bologna C36

-HeH-
-m-

-Hell— - d e f l — ~ I M I — Hied—•
-Hefl— —1MJ— -Hed— -Hied— Ik ill —IMI—

-HeH-
-HeH- -HeH- IMI ' [|u|| ' lloll
1MT
T
Zacconi, writing as he did very late in the history of the 'La
Spagna' tune, seems legitimately to have had no knowledge of
the tenor's identity, the basse danse tradition having been largely
forgotten by the seventeenth century. The theorist puzzled over
the name given to the melody, 'Bascia', although in retrospect
we can easily recognise it as a corruption of the Italian word
bassa, derived from the melody's original use as a basse danse.
Unfortunately, Zacconi's words strongly imply that he had never
actually seen Festa's 120 variations himself, but had only heard
of their possible pedagogical and artistic value. It appears reason-
able to identify these 120 counterpoints on a cantus firmus,
referred to in passing by Zacconi in 1622, with the 'basse'
mentioned in Festa's letter of 1536 and the 'basse, contraponti'
in his petition of 1538. The two documents tell us that these
works had already been written or at least conceived of by the
1530s. However, as far as we know, the compositions were never
published before Festa's death in 1545 and have never surfaced
until now.
Most early theorists and composers who linked Festa's name
with 'La Spagna' mistakenly believed him to be its composer;
only Zacconi revealed that Festa had composed a series of contra-
puntal exercises based on this cantus firmus.7 Less explicit was

' Apparently Zacconi borrowed the added invertible contrapuntal line(s) from Scipione
Cerretto, who also deemed the cantus firmus to be Festa's 'Bascia' (i.e. the 'La
Spagna' tenor) in his Delia prattica musica vocale, et strumentah (Naples, 1601; repr.
Bologna, 1969: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. n, no. 30), pp. 293-4; unfortu-
nately, Cerretto did not elaborate any further on the possible origins of the pre-existent
melody. In addition, both Giovanni Trabaci and Ascanio Mayone attributed the
composition of the cantus firmus to Festa in their own variations on the 'La Spagna'
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Pamassum

the papal singer and composer Giovanni Maria Nanino (c. 1545-
1607).8 In the dedication to his book of three- and five-voice
canonic motets of 1586 (RISM N24), Nanino expressed keen
admiration for the earlier composer's musical style: 'There exist
many [works] - both by that author most distinguished among
musicians, Constantius Festa, and by other such outstanding
men — carefully developed on some ecclesiastical theme.' 9 Nanino
followed the preface with his twenty-eight sacred motets, all
cantus-firmus works based on the basse danse tenor 'La Spagna.'
It seems unlikely that Nanino, a singer in the papal chapel after
the reforms instituted under the auspices of the Council of Trent,
would have openly published a sacred motet collection that used
a secular tune as its foundation. Perhaps he was unaware of the
tune's secular origins, or maybe he simply lied in implying that
his cantus firmus was in reality an 'ecclesiastical theme'.
Over the centuries, Nanino's own reputation as a composer of
pieces based upon this cantus firmus gradually eclipsed Festa's
role in the popularisation of 'La Spagna' for written polyphonic
elaborations. The origins of a fanciful myth that eventually devel-
oped in this regard can be traced back to D. Romano Micheli,
in the preface to his Musica vaga, et artificiosa of 1615 (RISM
M2683, 16153). Micheli mentioned only that the Spaniard Sebas-
tiano Raval, having arrived in Rome, considered himself the
greatest musician in the world until Nanino and Francesco Sori-
ano humbled him.10 Giuseppe Pitoni, one of Italy's first well-
tenor (see Gombosi, Compositione, p. lx). Rocco Rodio, in his Regole di musica (Naples,
1609 [colophon 1611]; repr. Bologna, 1981: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. n,
no. 56), pp. 6ff, employed 'La Spagna' as a cantus firmus for various original canons.
Although he lavished praise on Festa's contemporary Willaert, he did not acknowledge
Festa's use of this cantus firmus in any way.
8
For a brief summary of Nanino's life and works, see A. A. Newcomb, 'Nanino,
Giovanni Maria', The New Grove Dictionary, vol. xin, pp. 20-1, or R. J. Schuler, ed.,
Giovanni Maria Nanino: Fourteen Liturgical Works, Recent Researches in the Music of
the Renaissance, 5 (Madison, Wisconsin, 1969), pp. vii—xi; for a more expansive view
of Nanino's role in the musical world of the late Renaissance, see R. J. Schuler, 'The
Life and Liturgical Works of Giovanni Maria Nanino (1545-1607)', 2 vols., diss.,
University of Minnesota, 1963, passim.
9
RISM N24, I-Bc exemplar, Cantus partbook, presents the text as follows: 'Extant
turn Constantij Festae auctoris in musicis grauissimi, turn aliorum in eo genere
praestantium virorum multa, diligenter varieq; super Ecclesiastico quodam cantu
elaborata'. I would like to thank Prof. Carol L. Neel for her assistance in developing
an appropriate English translation for this passage.
10
On A2V of Musica vaga et artificiosa, D. Micheli related the incident as follows: 'non
restero dirui di quell'intelligentissimo musico Sebastiano Raual Spagnolo, il quale
 Richard J. Agee
known musicological figures (active in the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries), quoted verbatim from the 1615 preface."
Neither source gave any date or described the exact nature of
the competition, and no mention was made of any surviving
music.
Nevertheless, later treatments of the story began to embroider
its essence. In the 1740s, Padre Martini, evidently familiar with
D. Romano Micheli's narrative, attributed to Nanino 157 contra-
puntal pieces on 'La Spagna' found in a manuscript in his
personal library. He believed their composition to have been the
consequence of the alleged showdown between Nanino and
Raval.12 Giuseppe Baini broadened the scope of the incident to
include improvisation upon themes - both Nanino and Soriano
composed so quickly and adorned their works with such artifice
that Raval blanched.13 Gaetano Gaspari, following the lead of
Martini, also explicitly linked the Roman incident to the manu-
script of the 157 counterpoints, indicating in his 1890 catalogue

venne in Roma, attribuendosi di essere il primo musico del Mondo, non hauendo
trouato in alcuna parte d'ltalia alcun suo pari: venendosi alle proue in Roma con li
Signori Francesco Soriano, e Gio: Maria Nanino, resto chiarito alia prima esperienza,
nondimeno volsero sentire tutto il suo sapere, si che detto Sebastiano Raual, non
chiamo mai li detti Signori Francesco Soriano, e Gio: Maria Nanino, che per nome
di Sig. Maestro, cid sentito da me mille volte, con l'occasione che eramo insieme in
Roma'.
" As found in G. O . Pitoni's Notitia de' contrapuntist! e compositori di musica, ed. C. Ruini,
Studi e Testi per la Storia della Musica, 6 (Florence, 1988), p. 155.
12
See the Carteggio inedito del P. Giambattista Martini cot piu celebri musicisti del suo tempo
(1888; repr. Bologna, 1969: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. v, no. 22), pp. 42-
3, 159.
13
As related by G. Baini in Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina (Rome, 1828), vol. II, pp. 39-40: 'Nel passaggio ch'ei [i.e. Raval] fece
per Roma, vi si trattenne, non saprei dir la ragione, parecchi mesi: e qui ne' ritruovi
de' musici attribuivasi il vanto di primo musico del mondo, non avendo trovato in
tutta Italia, com'ei diceva, alcun suo pari. V'ebbe finalmente chi nauseato di tanto
orgoglio gli propose di provarsi pur una volta con i due fratelli Nanini, e Francesco
Suriano maestri di Roma. Ed egli tosto sfido il Nanini Gio. Maria come fratel
maggiore di Bernardino, ed il Suriani [sic] a comporre estemporaneamente sopra
temi da proporsi a vicenda. Fu accettata da' romani la disfida, e trovatisi tutti tre
insieme, e propostisi a vicenda i temi, mentre il Raval ancora studiavasi di accozzare
la prima idea, il Nanini, ed il Suriano gli presentarono compiute le respettive
composizioni adorne di tanti artifizi, e con tanta chiarezza disposti, che il Raval
impallidito dimando loro perdono del suo ardire e manifestato avendo ai medesimi,
siccome quegli vollero ch'ei facesse, gli angusti limiti delle sue cognizioni, pregolli a
non escluderlo dalla loro scuola, e per tutto il tempo che continuo a dimorare in
Roma, al dir di D. Romano Micheli, che trovossi presente a questa disfida non chiamo
mai li detti signori Francesco Suriano, e Gio. Maria Nanini, che per nome di signor maestro'
(italics original). Baini quoted D. Micheli Romano's letter as well on p. 40, n. 478.
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

of the Bologna Conservatory library that 'Gio. Maria Nanino

and Francesco Soriano of Rome were challenged by the Spaniard
Sebastiano Raval to [a contest in] musical composition. Francesco
Soriano, with 110 counterpoints on Ave maris stella, and Gio.
Maria Nanino, with these 157 [counterpoints] on the same cantus
firmus [i.e. 'La Spagna'], surpassed the Spaniard." 4 In the follow-
ing year, F. X. Haberl repeated the story as previously
embellished and maintained that the portion of Martini's manu-
script containing the compositions based on 'La Spagna' was a
Nanino autograph. He also fixed the date of the Roman compe-
tition at 1593, evidently on the basis of Raval's first publication,
the Motectorum quinque vocum . . . liber primus ( R I S M R439), issued
that year in Rome.15 Little more has been added to the fable
from then to the present.16
Without a doubt the characteristics of the principal manuscript
containing the 157 counterpoints, now known as Bologna C36,17
contributed to the development of this myth. Folios 1-128, copied
in a single hand during Nanino's lifetime, contain 125 works
followed by Nanino's twenty-eight published canons and four
other pieces, presumably by Nanino, all based on the same
cantus firmus, 'La Spagna'. The page with the last of these 157

14
See G. Gaspari, Catalogo della Biblioteca Musicale G. B. Martini di Bologna, ed. N. Fanti,
0 . Mischiati, L. F. Tagliavini, Studi e Testi di Musicologia, 1 (Bologna, 1961), vol.
1, pp. 301-2: 'Gio. Maria Nanino, e Francesco Suriano di Roma furono da Sebastiano
Raval Spagnuolo sfidati a comporre in musica. Francesco Suriano con centodieci
Contrappunti sopra VAve Maris Stella, e Gio. Maria Nanino con questi centocinquanta-
sette sopra un medesimo Canto Fermo superarono lo spagnuolo.'
13
See F. X. Haberl, 'Giovanni Maria Nanino: Darstellung seines Lebensganges und
Schaffens auf Grund archivalischer und bibliographischer Dokumente', Kirchenmusikal-
isches Jahrbuch, sechster Jahrgang (1891), pp. 91, 95, although he incorrectly listed the
call number of Bologna C36 as C35. R. Giraldi, in 'Nanino, Giovanni Maria',
Encidopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arii (Rome, 1934—43), vol. xxiv, p. 198,
mistakenly asserted that Bologna C36 was in the Liceo Musicale of Mantova. Casimiri
suggested 1592 as a possible date for the competition between the Spaniard and the
Italians (R. Casimiri, 'Sebastiano Raval musicista spagnolo del sec. XVF, Note
d'Archivio per la Storia Musicale, 8 (1931), pp. 1-2), but with scant justification.
16
Much of the relevant bibliography connected to the Roman incident is covered by
Schuler in 'The Life', vol. i, pp. 21-2.
17
Martini's manuscript now forms part of the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale
(I-Bc) collection, call number C36. Another manuscript containing this music, appar-
ently copied directly from C36, also survives at I-Bc as T225 (as listed in Gaspari,
Catalogo, vol. I, pp. 301-2). Gaspari believed T225 to be in the hand of Girolamo
Chiti (1679-1759 - see S. Gmeinwieser, 'Chiti, Girolamo', The New Grove Dictionary,
vol. iv, p. 289). Nonetheless, owing to the relatively poor transmission of the musical
text in T225, all references here will be to the more accurate Bologna C36.
 Richard J. Agee
r
counterpoints (fol. 128 ) carries the rubric 'Finis 1602 Mantuae
Die 23. Octobris +', and the hand shows no characteristics
incompatible with that date. The probable scribe of these first
128 folios has recently been identified, through a comparison
with many other manuscripts in Bologna, as Pietro Martire
Balzani, who can be placed in Mantua during 1602.18 Although
Haberl believed this part of the manuscript to be a Nanino
autograph,19 such an identification seems highly unlikely. It is
true that Nanino had dedicated his motet book of 1586 to the
Mantuan Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and had visited Mantua for
several weeks on papal business late in the same year,20 but we
have no evidence of any trip that Nanino might have made to
Mantua in 1602. Besides, the shape of many of the letters found
in the rubrics of the 157 counterpoints in Bologna C36 fails to
match those in Nanino's extant autograph letters.21
The remainder of Bologna C36, including the title page with
the introductory folios as well as the conclusion of the manuscript
with Soriano's 110 counterpoints on Ave maris stella (through fol.
264), is eighteenth-century in origin.22 The title page reads 'One
Hundred Fifty Seven Counterpoints upon a Cantus Firmus
Entitled La Base of Costanzo Festa, Works by Gioan Maria
Nanino da Vallerano'. 23 The eighteenth-century scribe's opinion
notwithstanding, Festa's contribution to this collection clearly did
not lie with his composition of this cantus firmus (here called
'La Base'), since, as we have seen, the tune originated well before
Festa was even born. Further, given that twenty-eight pieces in

See O . Mischiati, La prassi musicale presso i canonici regolari de Ss. Salvatore nei secoli XVI
e XVII e i manoscritti polifonici delta Biblioteca Musicale 'G. B. Martini' di Bologna, Istituto
di Paleografia Musicale, Documenti, 1 (Rome, 1985), pp. 81-2, where a full description
of the manuscript is given; p. [132] presents a facsimile of the last two pages of
Balzani's portion of the manuscript, including the final rubric. Unfortunately, Mis-
chiati mistakenly identified all 157 compositions in Bologna C36 as canons. While
Nanino's published pieces are indeed canons, few of the remaining 129 compositions
are canonic; see the Appendix below.
See Haberl, 'Giovanni Maria Nanino', 95.
A number of letters survive from Nanino's journey to Mantua; see the transcriptions
from the papal archives in Schuler, 'The Life', vol. i, Appendix I, pp. 345fF.
Facsimiles of Nanino's writing may be found in Schuler, 'The Life', vol. i, pp. 346-76.
See Mischiati, La prassi, pp. 81-2.
'CENTO CINQVANTASETTE | CONTRAPUNTI j SOPRA DEL CANTO
FERMO INTITOLATO j LA BASE di Costanzo FESTA | OPERA DI | Gioan
Maria NANINO j DA VALLERANO II'.
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

the manuscript (Counterpoints 126-53) constitute the music

printed by Nanino in his motet book of 1586, albeit without
the full Latin texts, musicians must have assumed that Nanino
composed all 157 pieces in the collection.24 Yet none of the first
125 pieces, the bulk of the manuscript, appears ever to have
been published.
In all likelihood Nanino failed to publish the initial 125
counterpoints because he did not compose them. The distinct
structure of the opening section of 125 pieces in Bologna C36
strongly implies that these works were conceived independently
from the following compositions by Nanino. Also, certain refer-
ences in the manuscript point to the authorship of an earlier
composer, and the musical style of the first 125 pieces seems
more compatible with the 1530s than the 1580s. Indeed, these
125 compositions must be the lost counterpoints of Costanzo
Festa, mentioned in Festa's letter and petition from the 1530s
and casually numbered at 120 by Zacconi, who had never seen
them but had only heard of the legendary compositional prowess
they exhibited.
Certainly the structure and contents of Bologna C36 substan-
tially support the hypothesis that identifies these pieces as Festa's
lost counterpoints. The works contained within the manuscript
progress almost symmetrically (see the inventory of Bologna C36,
Appendix below), from a pair of two-voice pieces to eighteen
three-voice works, and then on to the largest section of eighty-one
four-voice pieces. Thereafter, corresponding to the gradual
addition of voices and enlargement of groups of pieces at the
opening, the number of variations in the remaining groups of

Gombosi, in Compositione, p. lvii, suggested that Costanzo Festa may well have been
responsible for transforming the tune into a cantus firmus for contrapuntal exercises,
although he never questioned the attribution of all 157 counterpoints to Nanino. He
also related that Banchieri had termed the 157 counterpoints 'opera degna di essere
in mano di qualfsiasi] musico e compositore' (p. lvii), but in truth Banchieri had
referred instead to published collections by Fulgenzio Valesi, Nanino and Cima -
'hanno in statnpa [italics mine] vn libro per ciascuno di questi Contrapunti obbligati
sopra il Canto fermo in Canon, opere degne in mano di qualsiasi Musico, &
Compositore' (A. Banchieri, Cartella musicale net canto jigurato fermo, & contrapunto
(Venice, 1614; repr. Bologna, 1968: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. II, no. 26),
p. 234). No doubt Banchieri was referring in part to the Nanino canonic motets
published in 1586 (RISM N24), the pieces which follow the first 125 compositions
of Bologna C36.
 Richard J. Agee
works declines as more voices are added. Thus there are only
seventeen variations in five voices, three in six voices, one in
seven voices, and two in eight voices, followed by one eleven-voice
variation - 125 in all.20 A distinct change occurs with Counter-
point 126, where we find Nanino's canons with sacred text
incipits. The three-voice canons proceed, at least initially, with
some regularity from the unison to the second, third and so
forth, much like the canons of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and the
five-voice pieces, not all canonic, conclude this portion of the
manuscript. It is only the canons from the three- and five-voice
series that Nanino published under his own name in the musical
print from 1586 previously mentioned.26
Unlike Nanino's compositions, the opening 125 counterpoints
of Bologna C36 exhibit techniques that clearly address Festa's
stated intention for his pedagogical works: 'The basse are good
for learning to sing in counterpoint, to compose and to play all
instruments.' In addition to employing virtually every possible
clef in this collection, the composer specifically designed certain
counterpoints to exercise a student's mastery of clef changes
(Counterpoints 2 and 83, where individual lines feature myriad
changes of clef). Other compositions address mensural problems,
with a few constructed to demonstrate particularly difficult pro-
portions (Counterpoints 79, 80, 84). Strict rhythmic stratification
of texture, an important basis for Fux's formulation of species
counterpoint in the eighteenth century, also makes an appearance
(Counterpoints 12, 88). Additional techniques necessary for a
thorough contrapuntal education abound — these works address
the use of plainchant paraphrase (Counterpoints 93, 94, 95, 115),

25
Gombosi, in Compositione, pp. lvii-lviii, also enumerated the contents of Bologna C36
as I have done here; but he casually assumed all 157 pieces to have been composed
by Nanino. Gombosi (p. lviii) mistakenly transcribed a number of rubrics in the
manuscript - Counterpoint 129, rendered by Gombosi as 'canon ad subditonum',
should read 'canon in subdiatessaron'; Counterpoint 134, given as 'canon ad subsex-
tam', reads in the manuscript 'canon ad essacordum'; and for Counterpoint 151, a
double canon, Gombosi correctly transcribed 'canon ad unisonum' but neglected the
second rubric, 'canon in diapason'. See the Appendix, below, for a complete transcrip-
tion of all rubrics in the first 128 folios of Bologna C36.
26
The last four counterpoints in this portion of the manuscript, 154—7, although presum-
ably by Nanino, were not published in N24. Of these, only Counterpoint 156 is a
canon, while, unlike the twenty-eight canons in the motet book, the other three use
imitation alone. The publication concludes with two four-voice canons that have no
reference to any cantus firmus.

10
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

'M.y&Sguftk

Figure 1 Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS C36, fol. l r . The first of
Festa's 125 pieces on the basse danse "La Spagna"; Counterpoint 1 for two voices

11
 Richard J. Agee
soggetti cavati (Counterpoints 96, 104), and quodlibet
(Counterpoint 98), as well as augmentation (Counterpoints 116,
117, 118, 121) and retrograde (Counterpoint 62). Too, we find
ostinato, imitative and non-imitative counterpoint, composition
within restricted as well as more ample ranges, cantus firmus in
every possible location in the texture, and canonic writing (see
the Appendix below for a detailed analysis of the techniques
used). Indeed, the attribution of these compositions, and the
massive arsenal of contrapuntal devices they contain, to a contra-
puntal genius of Festa's generation would be entirely justified.2'
In contrast, the three- and five-voice compositions by Nanino
(Counterpoints 126-57) that follow the first portion of Bologna
C36 emphasise far fewer compositional techniques, concentrating
only on canon at various intervals, imitative polyphony, and
diminution.
Certain textual and musical references in the first 125 counter-
points of Bologna C36 provide further sources of speculation.
Counterpoint 36 pays homage to a predecessor of Festa in the papal
choir, Josquin des Prez. The lowest part of this four-voice compo-
sition carries the motive la-sol-fa-re-mi as an ostinato, the same theme
that formed the basis for the famous mass by Josquin; a second
unidentified ostinato on fa-mi-la-mi-sol-la occupies the uppermost
voice (see Example 2) .28 According to Heinrich Glarean in his Dodek-
achordon of 1547, Josquin had invented la-sol-fa-re-mi as a soggetto cavato
on the promise of his procrastinating patron to take care of his salary,
'Laise faire moy' or 'Lascia fare a me', and yet the subject may well
have been based upon an earlier barzelletta or a popular song.29
Although the influence of Josquin's music was strongest in the first

For general comments on Festa's musical style and technical abilities, see Reese,
Music in the Renaissance, pp. 362-4; E. E. Lowinsky, The Medici Codex of 1518: A
Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino {Chicago and London,
1968), vol. i, pp. 42-51, 78; A. Main, 'Festa, Costanzo', The New Grove Dictionary,
vol. vi, pp. 501-2; Main, 'Costanzo Festa: The Masses and Motets', diss., New York
University, 1960, pp. 67—175; and H. Musch, Costanzo Festa als Madrigalkomponist,
Sammlung Musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen, 61 (Baden-Baden, 1977), pp. 69-
147.
A modern edition of the mass may be found in Josquin des Prez, Missen, ii: Missa
la sol fa re mi, ed. A. Smijers (1926; repr. Amsterdam, 1969).
See James Haar, 'Some Remarks on the Missa La sol fa re mi', Proceedings of the
International fosquin Festival-Conference, ed. E. E. Lowinsky and B. J. Blackburn (London,
1976), pp. 564-88.

12
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

half of the sixteenth century, when Festa was active, and underwent
a decline in the second half of the century,30 this particular subject
was used throughout the period. Most of the pieces based on la-sol-fa-
re-mi seem to have been written in the middle decades of the sixteenth
century, but the soggetto was used even by Froberger a century later.31
Consequently, other evidence aside, it is conceivable that either
Festa or Nanino might have composed this particular work. While a
very young Festa might have actually met Josquin or even studied
with the old master, we have no evidence of Josquin's presence in
Italy in his later years. It seems far more likely that Festa became
familiar with Josquin's reputation while a member of the papal choir
itself. Naturally Festa's sophisticated use of counterpoint, both in his
sacred works and here in Bologna C36, would suggest that he studied
with some great northern master: if not Josquin, then perhaps a suc-
cessor of Josquin, such as Mouton.32 On the other hand, by the 1580s,
when Nanino published his canons on 'La Spagna', although Jos-
quin would no longer have been looked upon with the same awe as he
had been in previous decades, no doubt Nanino would have known or
at least heard ofJosquin's music in his position as a papal singer.
Some of the other textual and musical references in this collec-
tion, however, less ambiguously suggest the hand of Festa. For
instance, Counterpoint 104 weaves in two ostinato soggetti cavati
dubbed 'Ferdinandus' and 'Isabella', presumably the monarchs of
Spain who died in 1516 and 1504 respectively (see Example 3).33
Nanino was born much later, c. 1544, and died in 1607;34 however
famous the Spanish king and queen, one can only assume that they

30
As indicated by Gustave Reese in 'Josquin Desprez', The New Grove Dictionary, vol.
ix, p. 718.
31
Haar, in 'Some Remarks', pp. 583-8, documents the long history of this soggetto.
32
Main, in 'Costanzo Festa' (pp. 7-10), and Lowinsky, in The Medici Codex (pp. 49-
50), suggested the possibility that Festa had travelled north to France. In any case,
Main attributed Festa's mastery of the art of counterpoint to possible musical studies
with Josquin; while Lowinsky mentioned Josquin as a possibility, he favoured the
hypothesis of a period of study with another great northern master, perhaps Mouton.
33
See G. Reese, Music in the Renaissance, rev. ed. (New York, 1959), p. 578. Bonnie J.
Blackburn kindly pointed out to me that these themes were soggetti cavati. The soggetto
'Isabella' is formed in the natural hexachord on mi-fa-re-la, that on 'Ferdinandus' in
the hard hexachord on re-mi-fa-ut. Gombosi, in Compositione, p. lviii, n. 1, unaware
that these were soggetti cavati, misread the references to the Spanish monarchs as
'Rosa bella - Ferdinandus'!
34
Schuler, in 'The Life', vol. i, pp. 43—4, mentions a lost inscription indicating Nanino
to be about sixty-three years old at his death, thus placing the year of his birth at
c. 1544.

13
 Richard J. Agee
Example 2. Counterpoint 36, from Bologna C36

lloll = o

l o <|t IIQH
p
10

_o
-fe-r 1 o
«J
ti

1
~n —© n
—o -"—i
V"
—o " O ~ — O" ^^o
^' O

15 20

^ ^

14
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 2 (cont.)
25

35

would have been remote figures at best to the younger composer.

Yet Festa, who died in 1545,35 was already a young man during
their reigns.
In addition, elements of Festa's biography would also suggest a
relatively close connection to the Spanish court. Sometime between
about 1510 and 1517, Festa appears to have served as music tutor
to the children of the d'Avalos, a family closely allied to the Spanish
crown, on the island of Ischia off Naples.36 Too, the d'Avalos chil-

Notice of Festa's death appears transcribed in R. Casimiri's 'I diarii sistini', Note
d'archivio per la storia musicale, 10 (1933), p. 269: '[Die 10 aprilis 1545] Eadem die
Constantius Festa musicus eccelentissimus, et cantor egregius uita functus est: et
sepultus in ecclesia traspontina.'
See K. Jeppesen, 'Festa, Costanzo', Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. iv, col. 90;
the reference was transcribed by Muschin Costanzo Festa, p. 17, n. 22. See also the disputes
over the exact dates involved in Lowinsky, The Medici Codex, vol. i, pp. 48-50, D. Crawford,
'A Review of Costanzo Festa's Biogaphy', JAMS, 28 (1975), p. 108, and E. E. Lowinsky,
'On the Presentation and Interpretation of Evidence: Another Review of Costanzo Festa's
Biography' JAMS, 30 (1977), pp. 124-5 and passim.

15
 Richard J. Agee
Example 3. Counterpoint 104, from Bologna C36
llcXI = o

m Isabella

m m
Ferdinandus

im

10

m^m m

m
15
m Tf-OT.
20

=m 16
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 3 (cont.
 Richard J. Agee
dren's older cousin, Ferdinando Francesco d'Avalos, the Marquis
of Pescara and commander of Spanish troops, married Vittoria
Colonna, a woman later to gain fame as a poet.37 Another compo-
sition in Bologna C36, Counterpoint 96, opens with the textual
incipit 'Victoria sola columna', and I have identified the
accompanying theme as another soggetto cavato (see Example 4).38
Without a doubt the incipit refers to this famous poet, friend to
Castiglione and Michelangelo, who died in 1547, only two years
after Festa. Festa and Vittoria Colonna might have met in Rome,
since she was an important member of Roman intellectual and
literary circles, the same ambience that gave birth to the new genre
of the Italian madrigal, of which Festa was the first important
Italian composer. Nanino, on the other hand, was only an infant
at the time of Vittoria Colonna's death.
Another telling piece of evidence from Bologna C36 concerns the
quotes from secular pieces in Counterpoint 98, a quodlibet. All
the Superius musical incipits that constitute the upper line (each
accompanied by its corresponding textual incipit) had already been
published by the late 1530s in the first book of four-voice madrigals
by Jacques Arcadelt (see Example 5).39 In this piece, the cantus
firmus has been transposed upward a fourth to allow each quote
to retain its original pitch level, although the composer has made
slight alterations in the incipits from their original rhythmic values
and has added an occasional ornament. Arcadelt, along with Festa,
had been among the earliest composers of the Italian madrigal and
had been a papal employee, like Festa, from at least 1540 (Arcadelt
may have arrived in Rome as early as one or two years before).40
37
For this and the other data concerning the life of Vittoria Colonna discussed below,
see G. Patrizi, 'Colonna, Vittoria', Dizionario biograjko degli italiani, vol. xxvn (Rome,
1982), pp. 448-57.
38
T h i s soggetto utilises only t h e first t w o w o r d s of t h e subject. Based o n t h e n a t u r a l
h e x a c h o r d , 'Victoria sola' m a y b e read a s mi-sol-mi-fa (albeit sharped!) sol-la.
39
See M. S. Lewis, 'Antonio Gardane and his Publications of Sacred Music, 1538-55',
diss., Brandeis University, 1979, p. 589, and also her Antonio Gardano, vol. i, p. 182;
see also T. W. Bridges, 'The Publishing of Arcadelt's First Book of Madrigals', diss.,
Harvard University, 1982, pp. 67ff; E. Vogel, A. Einstein, F. Lesure and C. Sartori,
Bibliografia della musica italiana vocale pro/ana pubblicata dal 1500 al 1700 (Pomezia, 1977),
vol. i, pp. 67-8 (no. 98); and Jacobi Arcadelt Opera Omnia, ed. A. Seay, Corpus
Mensurabilis Musicae, 31, ii (N.p., 1970), pp. xv-xvi and passim.
40
The appropriate documentation may be found in Bridges, 'The Publishing', pp. 48ff.
Edmond Vander Straeten placed Arcadelt in Rome by 1539, but without clearly
indicating his sources; see La musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIX1 siecle (1867-88; repr.
New York, 1969), vol. vi, pp. 358-60.

18
 o
o
3

3
N
O

3
I"
5=
1
e
3

Figure 2 Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS C36, fols. 81v—82r. The
conclusion of Counterpoint 96 and the opening of Counterpoint 97, both for four voices;
the latter carries the garbled and unidentified text, "Te moccia celebramus"
 Richard J. Agee
Example 4. Counterpoint 96, from Bologna C36
lloll = o

j) V mm m
Victor a sola col

^m m
in « ion

=e *3fE

10

U
t ." 20

i
i

20
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 4 (cont.)
25

i i
i
M

30

>r
m
in

'>U-J'J

21
 Richard J. Agee
Example 5. Superius line from Counterpoint 98 in Bologna C36

Raggion e ben.
10

j u r rr
Vostra fui.
15

rr ^
O felici occhi miei.
20

Io hd nel cor un gelo. Alma perche si trista.

25

Se per colpa d^l \ostro fiero sdegno.

30

II bianco e dolce cigno. Felice

J j u j
Che piu foc'al mio foco.

m dov'el bel viso.

Nor was this Festa's only use of quodlibet: a manuscript source in

the Vatican attributes a rare example of a quodlibet mass to Festa
as well.41
Another argument for Festa's authorship of the first 125 vari-
ations in Bologna C36 would be the explicit reference to sacred
and secular elements, a mixture probably more common before
than after the Council of Trent, the church body that strove to
41
The Missa carminum a 4; see Costanzo Festa, Opera Omnia, Corpus Mensurabilis
Musicae, 25, i, ed. A. Main (N.p., 1962), pp. viii-ix. See also Main, 'Costanzo Festa',
pp. 16-17.

22
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Pamassum

banish secular elements from sacred works. The council was con-
vened around the same time that Festa died and Nanino was born.
Nanino's works in the Bologna collection have no textual references
at all to secular pieces or subjects, and those published in his print
of 1586 carry only sacred texts. As previously mentioned, the quote
from the preface to that collection would suggest either that Nanino
was not aware of the secular origins of the cantus firmus on which
he based his twenty-eight sacred canons, or that he deliberately
misled the public by suggesting that his secular cantus firmus was
an 'ecclesiastical theme'. On the other hand, the first 125 pieces
do contain, as we have seen, secular themes — such as those from
Arcadelt madrigals and soggetti cavati based on the names or actions
of monarchs, a poet, and possibly a patron — as well as sacred
quotations in the paraphrases of plainchant.
The treatment of the cantus firmus also differs considerably
between the first 125 pieces and the last 32, thus strongly suggest-
ing the hand of a different composer. Diminution of the cantus
firmus never occurs in the first 125 counterpoints, yet it is used
seven times in the last 32 pieces (in Counterpoints 126, 129, 131,
132, 136, 140, and 145).42 Such diminution from breves to semi-
breves as is found in Nanino's compositions clearly exhibits the
rhythmic inflation seen later in the sixteenth century. In contrast,
cantus-firmus augmentation appears four times in the first 125
variations, all near the end of this section of the manuscript (in
Counterpoints 116, 117, 118, 121), but not at all in Nanino's com-
positions that follow. In addition, one finds only two transpositions
of the cantus firmus in the first 125 variations, and those are pre-
sumably to facilitate the combination of the cantus firmus with
other fragments at their original tonal position (in Counterpoint
99 with incipits from Arcadelt madrigals, and in Counterpoint 98
with a text and scrambled incipit yet to be identified). On the
other hand, a total of twelve transpositions of the cantus firmus
may be found in the last 32 pieces; the composer of the first 125
works just seems to have been less willing to manipulate the cantus
firmus in this fashion. Retrograde of the cantus firmus appears
only once in the first part, at number sixty-two, almost exactly

In Counterpoint 147, each note of the cantus firmus appears as a pair of semibreves
tied across the bar. I have not included this among the examples of diminution.

23
 Richard J. Agee
halfway through the initial group of 125 pieces — thus in an abstract
way defining the first large section as an entity distinct from the
last 32 pieces composed by Nanino.43
Some archaic musical features can also be cited from the first
125 pieces of the collection, traits which might have been accept-
able early in the sixteenth century but were clearly uncommon by
the end of the Renaissance. One such characteristic is the use of
mixed key signatures (Counterpoints 39, 42, 82). Also archaic
would be the octave-leap cadence, where a lower voice jumps from
the fifth of the mode up an octave while two other voices produce
the standard major-sixth-to-octave (or minor-third-to-unison) cad-
ential formula to the modal final (see Examples 6a-d).44 None of
these characteristics may be found in Nanino's contributions to the
manuscript. Another archaic anomaly in the first 125 counterpoints
is the relatively frequent appearance of the old F5 clef (i.e. the F
clef on the topmost line). It occurs fourteen times in the first 125
compositions of the collection, but it never occurs in the last 32
pieces by Nanino; at the same time, the high G2 clef makes its
appearance in only four of the first 125 compositions, but also in
four of the last 32, thus reflecting the somewhat more common use
of that clef in the latter decades of the sixteenth century.
Many of the first 125 works in Bologna C36 exhibit deep sonorit-
ies and closely written counterpoint similar to many compositions
by Festa and others of his generation, such as Willaert, Gombert
and Clemens. C3 is the highest clef in the 105 compositions for
four or more voices. Such a low and concentrated range may be
found in almost two dozen other compositions of four or more
voices by Festa.45 Yet Nanino (with the exception of his
Lamentations) seems rarely to have used a clef lower than Cl in
the uppermost voice of his compositions for four or more voices,

43
In the last section, at the final Counterpoint 157, the cantus firmus does appear
once in retrograde inversion.
44
This cadence was already archaic even in Festa's day. Anthony Newcomb advised
me that Festa's contemporary, Pietro Aaron, no longer included the octave-leap
cadence in his theoretical writings. See, for instance, the facsimile edition of Aaron's
Toscanello in Musica of 1529, ed. W. Elders, Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. n,
no. 10 (Bologna, 1969), cap. XVIII, or P. Aaron, Toscanello in Music, Book II, Chapters
I-XXXVI, trans. P. Bergquist, Colorado College Music Press Translations, 4 (Colorado
Springs, 1970), pp. 30-1.
43
As noted in a perusal of Festa, Opera Omnia, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 25,
i-viii, ed. A. Main and A. Seay (N.p., 1962-78).

24
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 6a. Excerpt from Counterpoint 10 (bars 36-7) in Bologna C36
lloll = o
36 __

Example 6b. Excerpt from Counterpoint 16 (bars 5-6) in Bologna C36

IK=H| = o
5 t

Example 6c. Excerpt from Counterpoint 18 (bars 5-6) in Bologna C36

imii = o
. 5

Example 6d. Excerpt from Counterpoint 19 (bars 5-6) in Bologna C36

5

25
 Richard J. Agee
and all of Nanino's five-voice motets found in Bologna C36,
Counterpoints 150-7, have a Cl clef in the upper voice.46
The need for extensive use of musicafictain the first 125 works
would also tend to imply a date of composition significantly earlier
than Nanino's maturity. For instance, the F-B tritone in the cantus
firmus itself must be altered with an editorial flat forty-six times
in this opening portion of the manuscript (in Counterpoints 9-11,
14-21, 23-50, 52-5, and 75-7), while such a notated flat is lacking
in only one of Nanino's 32 compositions (in Counterpoint 154, not
published in Nanino's motet book, RISM N24). Further, an analy-
sis of the accidentals actually written into the score shows that
notated sharps are two-thirds more frequent in Nanino's 32 pieces
at the end of the manuscript than in the first 125 pieces, thus
mirroring the increased use of written sharps as the sixteenth cen-
tury progressed.47
Another application of musicafictamay be seen in Example 7a,
an excerpt from Counterpoint 111. This composition employs five
voices, with the cantus firmus the second voice down. Appropriate
cadences can be created by the application of editorial sharps in
the single voice above the cantus firmus, as illustrated. Example
7b is an excerpt from the second part of Costanzo Festa's motet
Sancto disponente spiritu.48 Like Counterpoint 111, this piece is also a
cantus-firmus composition, and it too uses five voices. Here the
application of unwritten accidentals proves quite similar to the
Festa motet, although now they are spread out over both voices
above the cantus firmus rather than a single voice as in the Bologna
C36 excerpt. Such practice may be seen as standard procedure in
the first half of the sixteenth century, although as the century drew
to a close - that is, during Nanino's maturity - such accidentals
tend more often to be explicitly written. In Nanino's pieces

See Schuler, 'The Life', vol. 11, passim; Schuler, Giovanni Maria Nanino, passim; and
Luigi Torchi, L'arte musicale in Italia dal secolo XIV al XVIII (P1898-1907; repr. 1968,
Milano), vol. n, pp. 1-30.
I recorded 239 instances of notated sharps in the first 125 pieces, and 102 instances
in the last 32 — in other words, an average of slightly less than two sharps per piece
in the first section to somewhat more than three sharps in each of the closing pieces
(any sharp used in place of a natural sign was excluded from these calculations).
Although the motet is anonymous in its source (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
Cappella Sistina 20), both Seay (Festa, Opera Omnia, Motetti, i, p. vii) and Main
('Costanzo Festa', p. 39) argue persuasively if not definitively for Festa as its composer.

26
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 7a. Excerpt from Counterpoint 111 in Bologna C36

m
12 15

20

r-£ | T I 1
1 1

J Jj J

"n -o— —

^ F -f~'

£ = J J-^ —o "Tl

27
 Richard J. Agee
Example 7b. Excerpt from Costanzo Festa, Sancto disponente spiritu, secunda pars; from
Opera Omnia, ed. A. Seay, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 25, iii: Motetti, i, pp. 84—5
lloll = o
95 100

J - JJ- 1 J - •)• j

i
£

m
105
m
^m
f

^
(Counterpoints 126-57), most of the accidentals deemed necessary
to effect the suspended cadences are written in the score at the
appropriate point.49
In addition to very similar cases of musica ficta, the cadential
structures and indeed the very composition of Examples 7a and 7b
49
Only Counterpoint 155 bears similarity in terms of its application of accidentals to
the Festa motet and Counterpoint 111. A sharp appears in the manuscript at each
suspended cadence in the analogous excerpt (bb. 12-25), with the exception of b. 24
in the second voice down, where the scribe incorrectly entered a C2 rather than a
C3 clef, thus transforming what would have been a c(#)' into an e'. Schuler, in
'The Life', vol. n, p. iv, indicated that most of the sources for Nanino's liturgical
music usually provide written accidentals at least somewhere in the same chord

28
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

also exhibit remarkable similarities. Bars 14-16 of Counterpoint

111 resemble the approach to the cadence at bars 97-9 of the Festa
motet, with the same pitches in the cantus firmus and the use of
a similar motive with falling stepwise motion in the added voices.
Counterpoint 111, at the cadence in bars 20-2, displays another
parallel to bars 101-3 of Festa's motet, again with similar motion
in both cantus firmi as well as surprising analogies in the
descending motive used. The similarity of compositional tech-
niques in the excerpts 7a and 7b demonstrates without a doubt
that these passages could have been written by the same composer;
since Festa composed the latter, its resemblance to Counterpoint
111 represents an argument for Festa as the composer of the former
as well.
In stylistic terms alone, many of the profound musical ideas
expressed in the first 125 compositions in Bologna C36 stand in stark
contrast to the facile and occasionally even awkward canons com-
posed by Nanino that conclude the collection, many of which are
based on the overuse of parallel sixths and thirds. Compare, for
instance, some of the previous examples, such as Example 2
(Counterpoint 36), Example 3 (Counterpoint 104), and Example 4
(Counterpoint 96) from the initial group of pieces, with Example 8
(Counterpoint 148) from the following portion of the manuscript, an
invertible canon at the unison with a sacred text, 'Surge propera'
(also published in Nanino's motet book of 1586). Note the rich, dense
counterpoint of the former examples, so characteristic of the post-
Josquin generation of which Festa was a part, as well as the complex
rhythmic variation in the added voices that often tends to hide the
plodding breves of the cantus firmus. Nanino's composition stands
in stark contrast. Although each voice in this piece can be inverted
to create a second composition, in both forms its repetitive use of
thirds and sixths suits the generation of Gastoldi and Monteverdi
rather than that of Festa. Note as well the repetitive melodic motion
in each of the added voices and the occasional awkwardness in voice-
leading (see, for example, the implied direct fifths in bars 21—2, or
the implied parallel fifths in bars 22—3 and 25—6). The rhythmic
subtleties of the former examples here give way to an unfortunate

where an editorial accidental had to be added. Obviously this would not have been
the case during Festa's generation.

29
 Richard J. Agee
Example 8. Counterpoint 148, from Bologna C36

IWI = o

30
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum
Example 8 (cont.)

30

,35

31
 Richard J. Agee
reinforcement of the incessant regularity of the breve motion in the
cantus firmus.
The evidence, then, for Festa's authorship of the first 125
counterpoints on a cantus firmus in the manuscript Bologna C36
can be summarised as follows:
(1) Festa himself searched for a publisher and applied for a
printing privilege for his counterpoints. Zacconi's testimony gives
their number as 120, even though it seems as if the theorist had
never seen the works. Thus it is conceivable that Festa's collection
consisted of 125 pieces in all, as in the first section of Bologna
C36.
(2) Contrary to the testimony of Zacconi and the title page of Bol-
ogna C36 (a later addition to the manuscript), Festa did not compose
this cantus firmus. Festa's link to the collection almost assuredly
must be as composer of the first 125 works. The names given to the
cantus firmus, 'La Base', 'Bascia' and 'Basse', all appear to be cor-
ruptions of what was originally a reference to the tune's descent from
the basse danse tenor 'La Spagna'.
(3) Nanino keenly admired the works of Festa, as he claimed in
the preface to his canonic motet book of 1586. In this publication,
he printed only 28 of the last 32 pieces from the opening 157
counterpoints contained in Bologna C36. Why didn't Nanino pub-
lish any of the first 125 pieces, many of which are excellent — and
better than Nanino's own? Quite simply put, the testimony of later
commentators notwithstanding, Nanino did not publish them
under his name because they were not his compositions.
(4) Finally, the music itself implies through its clear pedagogical
intent (reinforced by Festa's own words in his letter to Filippo
Strozzi in 1536), the nearly symmetrical ordering in the number of
voices, the retrograde cantus firmus halfway through, biographical
references, various archaic musical features, and general stylistic
traits that the first 125 pieces form a separate collection altogether,
one likely written earlier than the last 32 works, and in all prob-
ability composed by Festa himself.
Thus, the first 125 compositions of Bologna C36 almost certainly
constitute Festa's legacy for the teaching of counterpoint - his very
own Gradus ad Parnassum.30 Palestrina, of course, had been the pri-

My edition of Festa's 125 counterpoints will be published in the series Recent Researches
in the Music of the Renaissance, A-R Editions, Madison, Wisconsin.

32
 Constanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum

mary representative of the Roman school in the renewal of Catholic

church music that followed the conclusion of the Council of Trent
in 1563. The pure, detached contrapuntal style of Palestrina's
sacred compositions served as the perfect conservative model for
Catholic church music from the sixteenth century, through the
Palestrina-inspired Gradus ad Parnassum of Fux in the eighteenth
century, to the present day.3' Nevertheless, Roman counterpoint
did not begin with Palestrina; if the first 125 counterpoints of Bol-
ogna C36 indeed represent the work of Festa, as they almost assur-
edly do, then quite literally one can see in the ascending number
of voices the steps to Parnassus taken by Festa in Rome a full
generation or two before Palestrina realised the flowering of his
own contrapuntal genius. Too, we can rejoice in the discovery of
125 'lost' works written by the first great Italian composer of the
High Renaissance.
The Colorado College

'' S. Durante, in 'On Artificioso Compositions at the Time of Frescobaldi', Frescobaldi

Studies, ed. A. Silbiger (Durham, North Carolina, 1987), p. 196, placed the 157
variations in Bologna C36 at the beginning of a long sequence of pedagogical
counterpoint collections leading from c. 1592 to 1655. Obviously, Nanino's canonic
motets, published in 1586, were written at least six years earlier than the putative
date of 1592, and of course Festa's contributions to Bologna C36 were probably
composed about half a century earlier.

33
 APPENDIX

Inventory of Bologna C36, fols. 1-128

The counterpoints are numbered according to the scheme in the manuscript itself. Since the music is copied across
from verso to recto, a piece occasionally begins on a recto page but continues on the facing verso; however, the
'Folios' column simply gives the first and last pages on which each composition is found. Voices are referred to
by clef; voices using the same clef are distinguished by letters according to positions in the score, with 'Cla' above
'Clb' and so on. The cantus firmus (= c.f.) begins in the first bar of each piece and proceeds in single breves
unless indicated below to the contrary. Unless specific mention is made of the c.f., comments under 'Mensuration
and procedures' refer only to the additional voices.

To simplify typesetting, some mensuration signs are rendered schematically: the circle and 'semicircle' appear as
O and C, the barred versions as O and C|; the semicircle enclosing a dot is C-
No. Folios Initial clefs .Annotations Mensuration and procedures
1 1' C4a [Below C4aJ Prima C|; free counterpoint against the c.f.
C4b(c.f.)
2 P-2' C3 [Below C3] Seconda C|; a clef and metre exercise - the added voice changes clef
C4(c.f.) 24 times, among Cl, C2, C3, C4, F4; the metre changes
from C| to 3 and back.
3 2 v -3' Cla [Below Cla] Terza C|; imitative counterpoint.
Clb
C4(c.f.)
4 3v-4' Cla [Below ClaJ Quarta C|; imitative counterpoint.
Clb
C4(c.r.)
 Cl LBelow Cl] Quinta C|; imitative counterpoint.
C2
C4(c.f.)
5 v -6 r C2a [Below C2a] Sesta C|; imitative counterpoint.
C2b
C4(c.f.)
6 v -7 r Cl [Below Cl] Settima C|; canon at the lower fourth, distance of 1 bar, Cl dux,
C3 C3 comes.
C4(c.f.)
7 r -8 r C4a [Below C4a] Ottava C|; imitative counterpoint within a very restricted range.
C4b
C4c(c.f.)
7 v -9 r Cla [Below Cla] Nona C, and thus an emphasis on smaller note values, such as
Clb semiminims and fusae; imitative counterpoint.
C4(c.f.)
10 8 v -10 r Cl [Below Cl] Decima C|; for the first time, the c.f. moves up from the lowest
C4(c.f.) position; imitative counterpoint; the piece ends with an
F3 archaic octave-leap cadence.
11 9 v -10 v C4(c.f.) [Below C4] C|; for the first time, the c.f. moves to the top voice;
F3a Undecima imitative counterpoint; concludes with a sequence.
F3b
12 O v -ll r C4a [Below C4a] C|; rhythmic stratification in non-imitative counterpoint -
C4b(c.f.) Duodecima the c.f. in breves, while C4a moves rapidly with a good
F3 deal of semiminim activity; F3 proceeds mostly in
semibreves, often tied across the bar, executing the motive
re-fa-mi-re as an ostinato with varied rhythmic patterns (in
bars 24-8, the pattern shifts away from re-fa-mi-re to
A-c-Bb-A).
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

13 ir-121 C4(c.r.) [Below C4J Terza C|; imitative counterpoint; concludes with a massive
F3 decima sequence featuring over 8 bars of parallel thirds between
F4 the added voices.
14 Cl LBelow C l ] Quarta O|; imitative counterpoint.
C3 decima
C4(c.r.)
15 12*-14' Cl [Below C1J Quinta O|; imitative counterpoint.
C4(c.f.) decima
F3
16 13*-15r C2 [Below C2] O|; imitative counterpoint; archaic octave-leap cadence at
C4(c.f.) Sestadccima bars 5-6.
F3
17 14*-15* Cl [Below Cl] Decima O|; imitative counterpoint.
C4(c.r.) settima
F3
18 15*-16' C4a [Below C4aJ Decima C; imitative counterpoint; archaic octave-leap cadence at
C4b(c.f.) ottava bars 5-6.
F4
19 16*"-I7r C4(c.f.) [Below C4| Decima n< C; imitative counterpoint; another archaic octave-leap
F4a cadence at bars 5-6.
F4b
20 17*-18' C3 [Below C3] Vigcsima C; imitative counterpoint.
C4a
C4b(c.f.)
21 18*-19r Cla [Below Cla] Vigesima C|; first four-voice piece; imitative counterpoint.
Clb prima
C2
C4(c.r.)
22 19'-20' Cla [Below Cla) Vigesima C|; imitative counterpoint; extended sequence at conclusion.
Clb seconda
Clc
C4(c.f.)
23 19V-21" Cla [Below ClaJ Vigesima C|; mostly non-imitative counterpoint; extended sequence at
Clb terza conclusion.
C3
C4(c.f.)
24 20 v -22 r Cla [Below ClaJ Vigesima C|; imitative counterpoint, mostly on a single motive.
Clb quarta
C4(c.f.)
F4
25 2T-22V Cla [Below ClaJ Vigesima C|; imitative counterpoint; in bars 14—22, re-mi-ut-mi-re takes
Clb quinta on an ostinato character in F3 before dissolving; two short
C4(c.f.) sequences at conclusion.
F3
26 22v-23r Cl [Below C1J Vigesima sesta C|; non-imitative counterpoint at the opening; ostinato-like
C4a motives in F4, on mi-mi-mi-fa-re-(ut), occasionally mirrored
C4b(c.f.) in C4a, C4b; progressively more imitative counterpoint used
F4 as the piece proceeds.
27 23v-24r Cl [Below C1J Vigesima C|; very free imitative counterpoint; F4 continually moves
C4a settima upward stepwise from A to a nine times, in assorted
C4b(c.f.) rhythmic patterns.
F4
28 24r-25r C2 [Below C2J Vigesima C|; imitative counterpoint; a dotted figure recurs on ut-re-mi
C4a ottava throughout, and in F4 it acts as a type of ostinato.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
29 24 v -26 r C) [Below C1J Vigesima C|; free imitative counterpoint; ostinato figure on
C4a Nona sol-fa-re-Ja-ut dominates F4.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

30 25 v -27 r C2 [Below C2J Trigesima C|; imitative counterpoint.

C3
C4(c.f.)
F4
31 26V-27V C2 [Below C2] Trigesima C|; imitative counterpoint; F4 begins with an ostinato figure
C4a prima of d-c-A-BP-A, but this takes the form g-f-d-e-d for most
C4b(c.f.) statements in this voice, thereby invoking a different
F4 solmisation; C2 is freely imitative, C4a mostly
non-imitative.
32 27 v -28 r Cl [Below C1J Trigesima C|; imitative counterpoint.
C3 seconda
C4(c.f.)
F4
33 28 v -29 r Cl [Below C l j Trigesima C|; free imitative counterpoint; F4 carries, in varied
C3 Terza rhythms, an ostinato figure on d-f-e-d-c-B"-A; a long
C4(c.f.) sequence occurs among all the voices at the conclusion.
F4
34 29 r -30 r Cl [Below Cl] Trigesima C|; imitative counterpoint between C4a and F3; Cl
C4a quarta non-imitative, but pitch series a'-g'-f acts as an ostinato
C4b(c.f.) with various rhythmic configurations; this piece features
F3 sluggish rhythmic motion, with breves used at times in all
voices simultaneously.
35 29V-31' C2 [Below C3J Trigesima C|; imitative counterpoint; more rapid motion with many
C3 quinta semiminims, especially at the opening.
C4(c.f.)
F4
 C4a Sesta F4 carries the motive la-sol-fa-re-mi (the subject of Josquin's
C4b(c.f.) famous Mass) in ostinato; another unidentified ostinato
F4 figure, fa-mi-la-mi-sol-la, dominates C2; C2 and F4 move
mostly in breves with occasional smaller values, while C4a,
apparently the only freely written voice, moves considerably
faster.
37 31V-32V C2 [Below C2] Trigesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; C2 carries a brief ostinato
C4a settima figure, f'-e'-d'-c'-b-c'-d' with occasional rhythmic variation;
C4b(c.f.) after opening, F4 moves mostly in breves.
F4
38 32 v -33 r Cl [Below C4a] Trigesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; in Cl, repetition mostly
C4a ottava between e and a', mimicking cadential motion, with varied
C4b(c.f.) rhythms.
F4
39 33 v -34 r Cl [Below Cl] Trigesima C ; mixed key signature, with one b in Cl, C4a, F4, but
C4a Nona none in C4b; freely imitative counterpoint.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
40 34 r -35 r C4a [Below C4b] Cj; c.f. now moves to the lowest voice as the range of all
C4b Quadragesima voices stays within an extremely limited compass; imitative
C4c counterpoint.
C4d(c.f.)
41 34 v -36 r C2 [Below C2] Quadragesima non-imitative counterpoint.
C4a prima
C4b(c.f.)
F4
42 35 v -37 r C3 [Below C3] Quadragesima mixed key signature, with one b in both C3, F4;
C4a seconda non-imitative counterpoint; in C3, cadential-like ostinato,
C4b(c.f.) d -d! -f -e' -d! -d -o° Hr-d (in one statement the entire motive is
F4 transposed to begin o n / ' ) , with varied rhythms.
43 36V-37V C3 [Below C3] Quadragesima C|; imitative counterpoint on the same three-minim upbeat
C4a Terza subject throughout.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

44 37 x -38' C4a [Below CHaJ C|; c.f. once again in the lowest voice; imitative
C4b Quadragesima quarta counterpoint within a restricted range.
C4c
C4d(c.f.)
45 38*-39' C3 [Below C3] Quadrage C|; imitative counterpoint; massive sequence at the
C4a quinta conclusion.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
46 39 i -40 1 C4a [Below C4aJ C|; ostinato of the opening motive re-mi-fa-sol used in both
C4b Quadragesima sesta C4a and C4b throughout, in varied rhythms; F4 imitates
C4c(c.f.) the ostinato at the opening before it assumes a largely
F4 non-imitative role.
47 39 V -41' C3 [Below C4aJ C ; C3 employs the motive sol-sol-(sol)-mi-fa-sol as an
C4a Quadragesima settima ostinato with melodic and rhythmic variation; C4a and F3
C4b(c.f.) use the ostinato figure as the basis for imitative
F3 counterpoint.
48 40 v -42 r C4a [Below C4a] C|; c.f. again moves to lowest position, and the initial
C4b Quadragesima Ottava imitative counterpoint takes place within a very restricted
C4c range; the last half of the piece consists mostly of
C4d(c.f.) non-imitative counterpoint.
49 41 V -42 V C3 [Below C3J Quadrage C|; imitative counterpoint.
C4a Nona
C4b(c.f.)
F4
50 C3a [Below C3aJ C ; imitative counterpoint.
C3b Quinquagesima
C4(c.r.)
F4
 4JT-441 C3 LUnder LJ3, U|; imitative counterpoint; ft- adopts three motives as
C4a 'Quadragesima prima' quasi-ostinato figures, repeating one at the same or a
C4b(c.f.) expunged; below C4aJ different pitch level before moving on to the next.
F4 Quinquagesima prima
52 44 r -45 r C4a [Below F4bJ C|; c.f. moves upward in the texture; imitative counterpoint;
C4b(c.f.) Quinquagesima seconda F4b freely uses the opening motive of C4a, re-fa-ut-re-mi-Ja-sol,
F4a and the opening motive of F4a, mi-sol-re-la, as ostinato
F4b figures; the repetitious nature of C4a also suggests ostinato
techniques.
53 441-461 C3 [Below C3J C|; imitative counterpoint; persistent repetition of the same
C4a Quinquagesima ['second motives in F4 suggests ostinato.
C4b(c.f.) expunged] Terza
F4
54 45 v -47' C3 [Below C3] C|; free imitative counterpoint.
C4a Quinquagesima quarta
C4b(c.f.)
F4
55 46V-47V C4a [Below C4aJ C|; imitative counterpoint; the general motivic character is
C4b Quinquagesima quinta scalar movement upward by semiminim.
C4c(c.f.)
F4
56 C4a [Below C4aJ C|; imitative counterpoint.
C4b(c.f.) Quinquagesima sesta
F4
F5
57 C4a [Below C4a] C|; imitative counterpoint; F4a and F4b slow considerably (to
C4b(c.r.) Quinquagesima settima breves and semibreves) as the piece proceeds.
F4a
F4b
58 49'-50' C4(c.f.) [Below C4J C|; c.f. untransposed in the upper voice, where it remains for
F4 Quinquagesima ottava several variations, during which the general range is very low;
F5a imitative counterpoint.
F5b
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

59 49 V -51' C4(c.f.) [Below C4J C|; imitative counterpoint in a somewhat restricted range.
F4a Quinquagesima Nona
F4b
F4c
60 50 v -52' C4(c.f.) [Below C4J C|; imitative counterpoint in a low range.
F3 Sessagesima
F4
F5
61 51V-52V C4(c.f.) | Below C4] Sessagesima C|; free imitative counterpoint in a low range; lethargic
F4 Prima motion consists mostly of breves and semibreves.
F5a
F5b
62 52 v -53' C2 (Below C2] Sessagesima C|; c.f. returns to the Tenor, but in retrograde (for the only
C4a seconda time in the first group of 125 counterpoints); non-imitative
C4b(c.f.) counterpoint.
F4
63 53 v -54 r C3 [Below C3J Sessagesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; lethargic rhythmic motion,
C4a Terza mostly breves and semibreves; extended sequence among all
C4b(c.f.) voices at the conclusion.
F4
64 54'-55 r C4a [Below C4aJ Sessagesima C|; imitative counterpoint; again lethargic rhythmic motion,
C4b quarta mostly breves and semibreves with the exception of decorated
C4c(c.f.) suspended cadences.
F4
65 54 v -56 r C4a [Below C4aJ Sessagesima C|," imitative counterpoint.
C4b quinta
C4c(c.f.)
F4
66 55 v -57 r C3 [Below C3] Sessagesima C|; imitative counterpoint,
C4a sesta
C4b(c.f.)
F4
67 56V-57V C2 [Below C2] Sessagesima C|; imitative counterpoint.
C4a Settima
C4b(c.f.)
F4
68 57 v -58 r C4a [Below C4aJ Sessagesima C|; imitative counterpoint based on a motive of falling thirds.
C4b Ottava
C4c(c.f.)
F4
69 58 v -59 r Cl [Below C1J Sessagesima C|; imitative counterpoint with pseudo-augmentation of initial
C4a Nona motive at opening of F4; massive sequence among all voices
C4b(c.f.) at the conclusion.
F4
70 59'-60' C2 [Below C2J C|; non-imitative counterpoint at the opening, although some
C4a Settuagesima imitation develops later.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
71 59'-61' C3a |Above C3aJ Ressolutio C|; simultaneous canon in inversion between F5 and the
C3b [below C3aJ Settuagesima resolution in C3a at the upper major third two octaves
C4( c .r.) Prima removed; C3b remains a free contrapuntal line.
F5
72 60 v -62 r Cl [Below C3J Settuagesima C|; imitative counterpoint; in F4, a continually occurring
C3 seconda motive appears from bar 9 onward, on f-e-d-f-c-c-B-A-c-G,
C4(c.f.) apparently derived from the opening imitative motive.
F4
73 61V-62V C3a [Below C3aJ Settuagesima C|; free imitative counterpoint.
C3b Terza
C4(c.f.)
F4
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

74 62 v -63' C3 [Below C3J Settugesima C|; canon of the c.f. material at the upper fifth, distance of
C4a [sic] quarta 1 bar, C4b (dux), C3 (comes); only the rests added in bars
C4b(c.r.) 14-16 of C3 and seven subsequent changes in mensuration
F4 in the same voice enable the counterpoint to work; the
other two voices engage in free imitation of one another.
75 63 v -64' C3a [Below C3alJ Settuagesima Cj; the same motive continually returns in all three added
C3b quinta voices, re-Ja-sol-la-mi-sol-re; the motive acts as a virtual
C4(c.f.) ostinato in F4.
F4
76 64'-65' C3 [Below C3J Settuagesima C|; ostinato figure of ut-re-mi in both soft and natural
C4a Sesta hexachords, with rhythmic variation, in C4a; the remaining
C4b(c.f.) two voices imitate one another freely.
F4
77 64 v -66' Cl [Below C l ] Settuagesima O; imitative counterpoint; some coloration used in all
C3 Settima added voices.
C4(c.f.)
F4
78 65 v -67' Cl [Below C3J Settuagesima C|; F4 states six ostinato figures, each repeated a number
C3 Ottava of times before moving on to the next; Cl also exhibits a
C4(c.f.) few such figures, but they are not used as strictly or
F4 consistently as those in F4; C3 engages in free counterpoint.
79 66V-67V C4a [Below C4a ] Settuagesima C|; imitative counterpoint; after 9 bars, the piece becomes a
C4b Nona mensural exercise in all added voices with numerous, and
C4c(c.f.) sometimes bizarre, proportions, such as 1/4, 5/4, and 8/2.
F4
80 67 v -68' Cl [Below C1J Ottuagesima Three different mensurations: O in Cl, C- in C4a, O 3/2
C4a \sic] in C4b and F4; non-imitative counterpoint.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
81 68 v -69 r C3 [Below C3J Ottogesima C|; canon at the unison, F4a (dux), F4b (comes), distance of
C4(c.r.) Prima a quarter-bar; the plodding breves and limited range of C3
F4a would suggest a quotation from plainchant, but the melody
F4b has not been identified.
82 C2 [Below C2] Ottogesima C|; mixed key signature, with one b in C4a, F4, but none
C4a seconda [below C4a] Bis in C2, C4b; all voices, non-imitative, work well as written;
C4b(c.r.) dicitur primo ut iacet following the instructions of the rubric, C2 and F4
F4 secondo quinta supra transpose up a fifth and work fine with the untransposed
c.f., but C4a appears to have been corrupted in
transmission, since in the transposed position it clashes with
the c.f. about a dozen times (unprepared sevenths and
ninths, and forbidden parallels); the results are even worse
when the voice is left untransposed or is transposed to yet
another pitch level.
83 69 V -71' C2 [Below C2J Ottogesima C|; imitative counterpoint; an exercise in clef changes in all
C4a Terza added parts.
C4b(c.r.)
F3
84 7O v -72' Cl LBelow Cl] Ottogesima C|; imitative counterpoint; a study in bizarre mensuration
C3 quarta changes and proportions in all added voices, including (for
C4(c.f.) instance) 8/1, 1/8, and 5/2.
F4
85 71v—72V Cl LBelow CIJ Ottogesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; tricky syncopations in all
C3 quinta added voices, especially F4.
C4(c.f.)
F4
86 72 v -73' C3 [Below C3J Ottogesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; steady semibreve motion in
C4a Sesta F4; triplets appear for lj bars in C3.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
87 73v-74r Cl [Below CIJ Ottogesima C|; non-imitative counterpoint; F4 moves in steady dotted
C3 settima semibreves throughout.
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

C4(c.f.)
F4
r
74 -75' Cl [Below ClJ Ottogesima C|; non-imitative polyphony and stratification of rhythms —
C3 ottava semibreves in Cl, semiminims in C3, breves (as usual) in
C4(c.f.) C4, and minims in F4.
F4
89 74v-76' Cl [Below Cl] Ottogesima C|; imitative counterpoint; rhythmic motion increases
C4a Nona significantly with many fusae used at the conclusion.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
G2a [Below G2a] C|; first use of a G clef, while c.f. is placed in lowest voice;
90 W-1T
G2b Nonagesima imitative counterpoint, with the persistent use of a
Cl three-note upbeat motive throughout.
G4(c.f.)
C|; c.f. remains in lowest voice; imitative counterpoint.
91 1&-1T G2a [Below G2J
G2b Nonagesima Prima
G2c
C4(c.f.)
G2a [Below G2J C|; c.f. still in lowest voice; imitative counterpoint.
92 77 v -78 r
G2b Nonagesima seconda
G2c
C4(c.f.)
[Below ClJ Non- C|; the hymn Ave maris stella (LU1259) paraphrased in Cl;
93 78 v -79 r Cl
C4a agesima Terza. Ave other voices imitate it contrapuntally.
C4b(c.f.) maris Stella
F3
94 79'-80r Cl [Below Cl] C ; Cl paraphrases the hymn Ave regina caelorum (LU1864);
C3 Nonagesima quarta other voices imitate it contrapuntally.
C4(c.f.) [below C3]
F4 Ave Regina Caelorum
mater regis etc.
95 79v-81r Cl [Below Cl] Da pacem C|; Cl paraphrases the hymn Da pacem Domine (LU1867);
C4a Domine [below C4a] non-imitative counterpoint.
C4b(c.f.) Nonagesima quinta
F4
96 80 v -82 r Cl [Below Cl] Victoria sola C|; Cl opens with a soggetto cavato on 'Victoria sola'
C2 columna etc. (mi-sol-mi-fa-sol-la), imitated by C2; free imitative
C4(c.f.) [below C2J counterpoint thereafter.
F4 Nonagesima sesta
97 81V-82V Cl(c.f.) [Below Cl] Non- C|; the text incipit is apparently scrambled, and the chant
C3a agesima settima paraphrase (if it is one) has not been identified; imitative
C3b [below C3a] Te counterpoint.
F4 moccia celebramus
[sic]
98 82v-83' Cl [Below Cl] Raggion e in Cl, ten musical quotes from Arcadelt's first book of
C3a(c.f.) ben. Vostra fui. O felici madrigals; c.f. transposed for the first time, up a fourth, to
C3b occhi miei. Io ho nel cor allow all the Superius incipits to remain in their original
F4 un gelo. Alma perche si keys; thus all voices now have one b in the key signature;
trista. Se per colpa de\ non-imitative counterpoint, lively rhythms with many
vostro fiero sdegno. II repeated pitches in added voices.
bianco e dolce cigno.
Felice me. che piu foc'al
mio foco. oime, dove e'l
bel viso. [below C3a]
Nonagesima Ottava
99 C4a [Below C4a] Nonagesima C|; canon at the unison, distance of 3 bars, F4a (dux) and
C4b(c.f.) Nona [below F4a] Canon F4b (comes); C4a freely imitates the canonic material.
F4a
F4b
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

100 84 r -85 r C3 [Below C3J Canon. Tres a three-voice canon for the hundredth counterpoint; C3
C4a(c.f.) in Unum [below C4a] leads, followed after a half-bar by F4 at the lower octave,
C4b Centesima and after another half-bar by C4b at the lower fourth.
F4
101 84V-85V C2 [Below C2] Centesima C|; text—music incipit in C3 has not been identified; free
C3 Prima [below C3J Ahi imitative counterpoint.
C4(c.f.) dispietato tempo
F4
102 85v-86' G2a [Below G2aJ Centesima C|; the first five-voice piece in the collection, c.f. in lowest
G2b seconda voice; imitative counterpoint.
Cla
Clb
C4(c.f.)
103 86v-87' Cl [Below C1J Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint; C4a begins non-imitatively but
C4a Terza eventually joins the imitative texture; F4 presents a series of
C4b variations on a short phrase, almost as an ostinato.
C4c(c.f.)
F4
104 87 r -88 r Cl [Below C1J Isabella C|; two ostinato figures, mi-fa-re-la from the natural
C3 [below C3] Centesima hexachord in Cl, and re-mi-fa-ut from the hard hexachord
C4a quarta [below C4aJ in C4a, both soggetti cavati on the names of the Spanish
C4b(c.f.) Ferdinandus monarchs; C3 and F4 engage in free imitation of one
F4 another.
105 87 V -88 V Cl [Below C1J Centesima C ; mostly non-imitative counterpoint; Cl carries the strict
C3 quinta ostinato la-sol-mi-fa-sol-la in the natural hexachord in various
C4a rhythmic guises.
C4b(c.r.)
F4
106 88V-89V Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint; opening motive ut-re-mi-ut-sol is
C3 Sesta used relatively strictly in the hard and natural hexachords
C4(c.f.) as an ostinato figure in F4b, but more freely with
F4a interpolations in F4a.
F4b
107 89 v -90' C3a [Below C3a] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint.
C3b settima
C4(c.r.)
F4a
F4b
108 90' - 9 1 r Cl [ B e l o w C l ] Centesima C ; a double canon — one canon at lower fourth, distance of
C3 Ottava 1 bar, Cl (dux), C3 (comes), and another at upper fifth,
C4a(c.f.) distance of 1 bar, F4 (dux) and C4b (comes).
C4b
F4
109 90v-92' C3 [Below C3] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint.
C4a Nona
C4b
C4c(c.f.)
F4
110 9r-92 v C4a [Below C4a ] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint, C4a and C4b starting with one
C4b Decima motive, F5a and F5b with another; in F5b, the motive
C4c(c.f.) la-mi-sol-re in the natural hexachord acts almost as an
F5a ostinato figure.
F5b
92v-93' C3 [Below C3] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint; C3 has less to do with the other
C4(c.f.) Undecima voices and tends to recycle its own motives.
F4a
F4b
F4c
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

112 93 v -94 r Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; very free imitation; Cl presents all double breves
C3 Duodecima almost in the manner of a second c.f., but the irregular
C4a contour of the melody suggests that it was not prius factus.
C4b(c.f.)
F4
113 94 r -95 r C3 [Below C3J Centesima imitative counterpoint; opening imitative motive,
C4a Terzadecima ut-mi-mi-sol-re, is used as an ostinato in F4.
C4b
C4c(c.f.)
F4
114 94 V -95 V Cl [Above C1J Ressolutio C|; canon at the upper eleventh, distance of 1 bar, F4
C3 [below C1J Centesima {dux), Cl {comes); remaining voices mostly non-imitative.
C4a Quartadecima
C4b(c.f)
F4
v
115 95 -96' Cla [Below Cla] Cente- C|; extremely free paraphrase of the hymn Ut queant laxis
Clb sima quintadecima (LU1504) in Clb; Cla presents the natural hexachord in
C4a [below Clb] Ut stepwise ascending motion with various rhythms
C4b(c.f.) queant laxis throughout; otherwise, mostly non-imitative or freely
F4 imitative counterpoint.
116 96v-98' Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; augmentation of c.f. in double breves in C4b, so that
C3 sesta Decima this piece and the next two (which present the c.f. in
C4a augmentation) are longer than most of the others; imitative
C4b(c.f.) counterpoint; F4 presents a series of four ostinato figures,
F4 repeating each several times before moving on to the next.
117 97V-99V Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; again, augmentation of c.f. in double breves; imitative
C3 Decima settima counterpoint.
C4a
C4b(c.f.)
F4
118 99 v -101 r Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; once again, augmentation of c.f. in double breves;
C3 Decima Ottava imitative counterpoint.
C4a
C4b(c.f.)
F4
119 101 v -102 r C4(c.r.) [Below C4J Centesima C|; c.f. returns to breve values; first six-voice piece in the
F3a Decima nona collection; imitative counterpoint; a single cadential-style
F3b motive acts as an ostinato in F3a, F3b, and F4.
F4
F5a
F5b
120 102v-103' Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; like the c.f., F4 also moves in steady breves; remaining
C3 Vigesima voices are freely imitative.
C4a
C4b
C4c(c.f.)
F4
121 103r-105v Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; each pitch of c.f. is now augmented to triple-breve
C3 Vigesima Prima values, making this piece the longest in the collection;
C4a imitative counterpoint.
C4b(c.f.)
F4a
F4b
122 1O6'-1O7' Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; the only seven-voice piece in the collection; C l sustains
C3 Vigesima seeonda an a' whenever it is harmonically possible, but otherwise it
C4a rests; imitative counterpoint among the other voices.
C4b
C4c(c.f.)
F4a
F4b
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

123 107v-108v C3a [Below C3a] Centesima Cj; first eight-voice piece in the manuscript; triple canon,
C3b Vigesima Terza each at the unison - C3a (dux), C3b (comes), distance of 3
C3c bars; C4a (dux), C4b (comes), distance of 3 bars; F5a (dux),
C4a F5b (comes), distance of 3 bars; C3c is freely imitative
C4b throughout.
C4c(c.f.)
F5a
F5b
124 1O9'-11OV Cla [Below ClaJ Centesima C|; various motives in imitative counterpoint throughout.
Clb Vigesima quarta
C3a
C3b
C4a
C4b(c.r.)
F5a
F5b
125 110 v -112' Cla [Below C1J Centesima C|; the only eleven-voice piece in the collection; various
Clb Vigesima Quinta motives in imitative counterpoint throughout.
C3a
C3b
C4a
C4b
C4c
C4d
C4e(c.f.)
F5a
F5b
126 112v-113r Cl(c.f.) [Below C1J Centesima C| in Cl, C in C3a, C3b; diminution of c.f. to semibreves;
C3a Vigesima sesta [below 3a] canon at the unison, distance of 1 bar, C3a (dux), C3b
C3b Canon ad Unisonum (comes). The first of Nanino's twenty-four three-voice
[below canonic motets, all found printed in Nanino's motet book of
C3b] Letamini in 1586 (RISM N24); the Latin rubric below C3b and all
Domino those following in this inventory (except for those that give
the number of the counterpoint or identify the canonic
technique used) refer to the texts added in Nanino's
publication.
127 112 v -113 r G2 [Below G2] Centesima C|; the c.f. returns to breve values; canon at the lower
Cla Vigesima settima [below major second, distance of 1 bar, G2 (dux), Cla (comes);
Clb(c.f.) Claj Canon. Ad Tonum published in N24.
[below Clb] Hi sunt qui
cum Mulieribus
128 112V-113V Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; canon at the upper major third, distance of a half-bar,
C2 Vigesima Ottava [below C2 (dux), Cl (comes); published in N24 with motet text
C4(c.r.) C2J Canon: Ad Ditonum 'Decantabat populus Israel'.
129 113v-114r Cl(c.f) [Below C1J Centesima C| in Cl, C in C2, C4; diminution of c.f. to semibreves in
C2 Vigesima Nona [below Cl; canon at the lower fourth, distance of a half-bar, C2
C4 C2J Canon in (dux), C4 (comes); published in N24.
subdiatessaron [below C4J
Benedicawz

130 113v-114r Cl [Below C1J Centesima C|; canon at the lower fourth, distance of 1 bar, Cl (dux),
C3 Vigesima ['Nona' C3 published in N24.
C4(c.r.) expunged] Trigesima
[below C3J Canon in
Diatessaron Remissum
[below C4J Miserere mihi
domine
Appendix {cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

131 113 V -114' Cl(c.f.) [Below C1J Centesima C; diminution of c.f. to semibreves, and c.f. embellished in
C3 Trigesima Prima [below bars 4-5, where the word 'Maria' may be found in N24, in
C4 C3] Canon in imitation of the two canonic voices; canon at the lower
subdiatesaron [below C4J fourth, distance of a half-bar, with C3 {dux), C4 {comes);
Gaude maria Virgo published in N24.
132 114'-114V Cl(c.f) [Below C1J Centesima C; diminution of c.f. to semibreves in Cl; canon at the
C3 Trigesima lower fifth, distance of 1 bar, C3 (dux), C4 (comes);
C4 seconda [below C3] published in N24.
Canon in sub Diapente
[below C4] Videte manus
meas
133 114V-115' Cl [Below C1J Centesima C|; c.f. returns to breve values; canon at the upper fifth,
C3 Trigesima Terza [below distance of 1 bar, C3 (dux), Cl (comes); published in N24.
C4(c.f.) C3] Canon in Diapente
Intensum [below C4J
Lapidabant stephanum
134 114V-115' Cl [Below Cl] Centesima C|; canon at the lower major sixth, distance of a half-bar,
C3 trigesima quarta [below Cl (dux), C3 (comes); published in N24.
C4(c.f.) C3] Canon ad
Essacordum [below
C4J Exultent et
letentur
135 115v-116r G2 [Below G2J Centesima C|; c.f. is transposed up an octave from its usual position,
Cl(c.f.) Trigesima quinta [below to a'; canon at the upper minor seventh, distance of 1 bar,
C3 Cl] Ecce ego mitto vos C3 (dux), G2 (comes); published in N24.
[below C3] Canon ad
Eptacordum
136 115v-116r G2 [Below G2] Laudate C; diminution of c.f. to semibreves in Cl, and c.f.
Cl(c.f.) Dominum omraes transposed up an octave; canon at the upper octave,
 C4 gentes [below C l ] distance of 1 bar, C4 (dux), G2 (comes); published in N24.
Centesima Trigesima sesta
[below C4] Canon in
Diapason Intensum
137 115V-116V C3 [Below C3] Canon in C ; c.f. returns to breve values; canon at the lower octave,
C4(c.f.) Diapason remissum [below distance of a half-bar, C3 (dux), F4 (comes); published in
F4 C4] Centesima Trigesima N24.
settima
[below F4] Hie [est]
Beatissimus
138 116v-117r C3 [Below C3] Canon Ad C|; canon at the upper major ninth, distance of 1 bar, F4
C4(c.f.) Nonam [below C4] (dux), C3 (comes); published in N24.
F4 Centesima Trigesima
Ottava [below F4] Fuit
Homo
139 116v-117r C3a [Below C3a] Canon ad C; even with this mensural sign, diminution of the c.f. to
C3b Unisonum [below C3b] semibreves does not occur in C4; canon at the unison,
C4(c.f.) Venite filij distance of a half-bar, C3a (dux), C3b (comes); published in
[below C4] Centesima N24.
Trigesima nona
140 117r-118r C3 [Below C3J Canon ad C; diminution of c.f. to semibreves in C4; canon in
C4(c.f.) Tonum per oppositum inversion, beginning a whole tone below, distance of a
F3 [below C4] Centesima quarter-bar, C3 (dux), F3 (comes); published in N24.
quadragesima [below F3]
Cantate Domino
141 117v-118r C3 [below C3] Versa est in C|; canon at the upper major third, distance of a half-bar,
C4a luctum [below C4a] Canon C4a (dux), C3 (comes); published in N24.
C4b(c.f.) ad Ditonum [below C4b]
Centesima quadragesima
Prima
142 117v-118r Cl(c.f.) [Below Cl] Centesima C|; c.f. transposed up an octave; canon at the lower fourth,
C4 quadragesima distance of 1 bar, C4 (dux), F3 (comes); published in N24
F3 seconda [below C4] with motet text 'Surge illuminare Hierusalem'.
Canon in
subdiatessaron
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures

143 8'-119 r C4(c.f.) [Below C4J Centesima C|; a cancrizans canon with both voices starting and ending
F3a quadragesima simultaneously a major third apart; published in N24.
F3b Terza [below F3a] Canon
Principium et finis [below
F3bJ Misericordia et
veritas
144 I18v-119r G2 [Below G2j Sancta [below C|; canon at the upper minor seventh, distance of I bar,
C3 C3J Canon ad Eptacorduwz C3 (dux), G2 (comes); published in N24.
C4(c.f.) vel ad
Tonum [below C4]
Centesima quadra-
gesima quarta
145 118V-119V C2 [Below C2J Gustate et C; diminution of c.f. to semibreves in C4b; canon at the
C4a videte [below C4a] Canon upper fifth, distance of a half-bar, C4a (dux), C2 (comes);
C4b(c.f.) in Diapente [below C4b] published in N24.
Centesima quadragesima
quinta
146 119V-120' C3 [Below C3J Isti sunt agni C|; c.f. returns to breve values; canon at the lower octave,
C4(c.f.) novelli [below C4] distance of a half-bar, C3 (dux), F4 (comes); published in
F4 Centesima quadragesima N24.
sesta [below F4] Canon in
subdiapason
147 U9 v -121 r C3 [Below C3J Canon in C| in C3, C in C4, F4; each breve of the c.f. now occupies
C4(c.f.) subdiapason [below C4J 2 bars as a pair of tied semibreves, and thus this
F4 Centesima quadrage«'ma composition is twice or four times the length of many of
settima the other surrounding canons; canon at the octave, both
[below F4] Me oportet added voices beginning together, but C3 moving at twice
minui ilium aut<;m crescere the speed of F4; published in N24.
148 120v-121' C3a [Below C3a] Canon ad C; c.f. returns to a single breve per bar; canon at the
C3b Unisonum [below C3b] unison, distance of a quarter-bar, C3a (dux), C3b (comes);
C4(c.f.) Surge propera [below C4] published in N24.
Centesima quadragesima
ottava
149 12OV-12T C2(c.f.) [Below C2] Centesima C; an inversion of Counterpoint 148, with all voices now
C3a quadragesima beginning up a fifth from their previous positions and each
C3b Nona [below C3a] line inverted; published in N24.
Canon ad Unisonum.
alio modo [below C3b]
Surge Propera
150 121V-122V Cla [Below Cla] Canon ad C|; the first of Nanino's series of four five-voice canonic
Clb Unisonum [below Clb] motets published in N24 (Counterpoints 154-7, only one of
C4a(c.f.) Verbum caro factum est them a canon, were not published with the others); a
C4b [below double canon - one canon at the unison, distance of 3
C4c C4a] Centesima quin- bars, Cla (dux), Clb (comes), and another at the unison,
quagesima [below distance of 3 bars, C4b (dux), C4c (comes); published in
C4b] Canon, ad N24.
Unisonum
151 122v-123r Cla [Below Cla] Canon. Ad C); another double canon - one canon at the unison,
Clb Unisonum [below Clb] distance of a half-bar, Cla (dux), Clb (comes), and another
C3 Gavisi surct Discipuli. at the lower octave, distance of a half-bar, C3 (dux), F4
C4(c.f.) [below C3] (comes); published in N24.
F4 Canon in Diapason [below
C4] Centesima
quinquagesima prima
152 123r-124' Cla [Below Cla] Canon ad another double canon - one canon at the unison,
Clb Unisonum [below Clc] distance of 3 bars, Cla (dux), Clb (comes), and another at
Clc(c.f.) Centesima quinquagesima the unison, distance of 3 bars, C4a (dux), C4b (comes);
C4a seconda [below C4a] published in N24.
C4b Monstra te esse matrem
Appendix (cont.)
No. Folios Initial clefs Annotations Mensuration and procedures
r r
153 124 -125 Cla [Below Cla] Quinta pars three-voice canon with optional fifth voice; C4 followed
Clb(c.f.) si placet [below Clb] after a half-bar by C2 at the upper fifth, and a half-bar
C2 Centesima quinquagesima later by F4 at the lower fourth; published in N24.
C4 terza
F4 [below C2] Canon in
Diapente et in Diatesaron
[sic; below C4] Qui vult
venire post me
154 124v-126r Cl LBelow C l ] Centesima C|; free imitation; not published in N24.
C3 quinquagesima
C4a quarta
C4b(c.f.)
F4
155 125V-126V Cl [Below C l ] Centesima C|; imitative counterpoint; not published in N24.
C3 quinquagesima
C4a quinta
C4b(c.f.)
F4
156 126V-127V Cl [Below C l ] Centesima C|; canon at the upper fifth, distance of a half-bar, F4
C3 quinquagesima {dux), C4a (comes); the remaining two voices are freely
C4a sesta [below F4] imitative of the canon and one another; not published in
C4b(c.f.) Canon in Diapente N24.
F4 intensum
157 127v-128r Cla(c.f.) [Below Cla] Centes- C|; one b key signature in all voices; c.f. in retrograde and
Clb ima quinquagesima transposed upward to begin on d"; imitative counterpoint;
C3 settima not published in N24.
C4
F4

[This portion of the manuscript ends with the following inscription]

Finis 1602 Mantuae Die 23. Octobris.-I-