Bibliografia delle opere dei musicisti resciani pubblicate a stampa dal 1497 al 1740. Opere di singoli autori.

This exceptionally useful and valuable book is a product of more than ten years of cooperative labor. In 1982, supported by a commission and grant from the Centro di Studi Musicali "L. Marenzio" in Brescia, the noted musicologist Oscar Mischiati published a 207-page bibliography bearing a title identical to that of the present work, but without the subtitle "Opere di singoli autori." That is to say, anthologies were included in its listings. The publication was designated "editio minor," to reflect its somewhat abbreviated presentation of data. It comprised a list of 817 printed editions, dating from 1497 to 1740, of musical compositions and theoretical treatises written by 61 musicians born or active within the province of Brescia. Compiled from earlier bibliographies and from the catalogues of major music libraries, the list was intended to serve as a springboard to a far more ambitious project. It was to guide the author and his associates in the task of assembling a complete collection of all the said editions, either in the original or in photocopy or microfilm, to be housed in the Civica Biblioteca Queriniana in Brescia. From 1983 to 1990 Ernesto Meli and Mariella Sala worked toward that goal, finally accomplishing it in terms of collected works by individual composers. The acquisition of anthologies, on the other hand, still remains a task in progress.

The present two-volume work enables a reader to browse, so to speak, through 456 editions of works by 59 individual composers and authors. Based on the compilers' first-hand access to original materials or photographic copies, it provides complete diplomatic transcriptions of all title pages, dedications, prefaces, and tables of contents, as well as lists of libraries that own original copies, and cross-references to major music bibliographies. At times one might think that the publisher has been too extravagant. Bonaventura da Brescia's Regula musice plane, which underwent 21 printings from 1497 to 1550, occupies 48 pages, because its preface and table of contents are transcribed again and again in toto, 21 times. Perhaps one day some sleuth will find significance in the occasional variant spellings. In any event, the format does make each edition of the treatise more individually real to the browser, and it strengthens one's confidence in the transcribers' meticulous attention to every detail. The same procedure holds for all multiple editions of other works.

Mischiati's definition of what constitutes a Brescian musician in the context of this bibliography covers, as already said, musicians born or active in the province of Brescia, whose works were published between 1497 and 1740. Not included are non-natives who may have worked in Brescia at one time but whose compositions were not published during their sojourn there. (Claudio Merulo and Orazio Vecchi belong to that category.) Unquestionably one of Brescia's proudest distinctions is its being the birthplace (i.e., Coccaglio) of Luca Marenzio. Although Marenzio never practiced his profession in Brescia, it is certain that he received his early training there. His towering presence in this bibliography is signalized by 123 published editions of his works, accounting for 182 pages of the book. But the compilers are quick to point to other reasons for Brescia's importance as a musical center. Many of the works represented in the bibliography reveal a lively practice of sacred music in "stile concertato" during the early decades of the seventeenth century, rarely paralleled in the other territories of Venice and Lombardy. Also of pioneering importance are the instrumental works of Costanzo Antegnati, Floriano Canale, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Biagio Marini, Giulio and Luigi Taglietti, and Francesco Turini, to name only a few. The book includes seven indices at the end, the most notable being those of printers and editors, dedicatees, and poets.

BENITO V. RIVERA Indiana University