Printing Music in Renaissance Rome

In sixteenth-century Italy, Rome ranked second only to Venice as an important center for music book production. Throughout the century, printers in the Eternal City experimented more readily and more consistently with the materiality of the book than their Venetian counterparts, who, by standardizing their printing methods, came to dominate the international marketplace. The Romans' ingenuity and willingness to meet individual clients' needs resulted in music editions in a broader array of shapes and sizes, employing a wider range of printing techniques. They became "boutique" printers, eschewing the run-of-the-mill in favor of tailoring production to varied market demands. Accommodating the diverse requirements of their clientele, they supplied customized volumes, which Venetian presses either could not--or would not--produce.

In Printing Music in Renaissance Rome, author Jane A. Bernstein offers a panoramic view of the cultures of music and the book in Rome from the beginning of printing in 1476 through the early seventeenth century. Emphasizing the exceptionalism of Roman music publishing, she highlights the innovative printing technologies and book forms devised by Roman bookmen. She also analyzes the Church's predominant influence on the book industry and, in turn, the Roman press's impact on such important composers as Palestrina, Marenzio, Victoria, and Cavalieri. Drawing on innovative publications, Bernstein reveals a synergistic relationship between music repertories and the materiality of the book. In particular, she focuses on the post-Tridentine period, when musical idioms, both new and old, challenged printers to employ alternative printing methods and modes of book presentation in the creation of their music editions. Of interest to musicologists, art historians, and book historians alike, this book builds on Bernstein's previous work as she continues to chart the course of music and the book in Renaissance Italy.

Jane A. Bernstein is Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emerita at Tufts University. Her books include Print Culture and Music in Sixteenth-Century Venice, Women's Voices across Musical Worlds, the 30-volume series The Sixteenth-Century Chanson, and Music Printing in Renaissance Venice: The Scotto Press (1539-1572), which won the 1999 Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society. Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, Bernstein also served as President of the American Musicological Society from 2008 to 2010 and was elected an Honorary Member in 2014.

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. The World of Roman Music Printers and Publishers
2. Methods and Materials
3. Sixtus IV and the Beginning of Music Printing in Fifteenth-Century Rome
4. Printing Palestrina's Music in Sixteenth-Century Italy
5. Marenzio and his Printers in Rome and Venice
6. Spanish Choirbooks, Tridentine Reforms, and the Roman Press
7. "Delight for the Ears, Spiritual Fruit for Souls": Printing the Lauda spirituale
8. Engraving the New Music Repertories
9. Printing Musical Spectacle: Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima, et di corpo

Afterword
Appendix 1: Short-Title Catalogue of Roman Music Editions (1476-1608)
Appendix 2: Short-Title Catalogue of Roman Music Editions (1476-1607) by Printers and Publishers
Appendix 3: Table of Dedicatees in Roman Music Editions (1476-1608)
Bibliography
Index