DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0118
86
ATALANTE MIGLIOROTTI
a new cantata entitled “ Mopsa and Daphne,”
which had been performed at Milan last carnival,
and which he is now sending her, but if she
does not like it, promises to let her have another
and a more attractive one, adding that she has only
to ask, for he will be never weary of doing her
service.1
The lute, as we know, was Isabella’s favourite
instrument, on which she accompanied herself with
rare skill and charm. A few months after her
marriage her father allowed his favourite musician,
the Constance organist Giovanni Martini, to pay
a visit to Mantua and give her singing lessons.
After his return to Ferrara the German priest sent
his pupil a book of songs, begging her to remember
his directions and practise them daily. At the
same time Duke Ercole sent Isabella his own book
of songs, in order that she might transcribe her
favourite melodies, begging her not to keep it too
long, but return it as soon as possible. In 1491,
another Ferrarese musician, Girolamo da Sestola,
came to Mantua to give her singing lessons, and
after his return to Ferrara, remained one of her
most constant correspondents. Now, however, a
sudden fancy to learn other instruments seems to
have seized her, and this same summer she wrote
to the great musician Atalante himself, begging him
to send her a silver citarra or lute, with as many
strings as he chooses, but which shall be a “ fair
and gallant thing to see.” Atalante, it appears,
had visited Mantua in 1491, at the pressing en-
treaty of the Marquis, to take the leading part in
a performance of Polizianio’s “ Orfeo,” which took
1 Luzio, op. cit., p. 243,
ATALANTE MIGLIOROTTI
a new cantata entitled “ Mopsa and Daphne,”
which had been performed at Milan last carnival,
and which he is now sending her, but if she
does not like it, promises to let her have another
and a more attractive one, adding that she has only
to ask, for he will be never weary of doing her
service.1
The lute, as we know, was Isabella’s favourite
instrument, on which she accompanied herself with
rare skill and charm. A few months after her
marriage her father allowed his favourite musician,
the Constance organist Giovanni Martini, to pay
a visit to Mantua and give her singing lessons.
After his return to Ferrara the German priest sent
his pupil a book of songs, begging her to remember
his directions and practise them daily. At the
same time Duke Ercole sent Isabella his own book
of songs, in order that she might transcribe her
favourite melodies, begging her not to keep it too
long, but return it as soon as possible. In 1491,
another Ferrarese musician, Girolamo da Sestola,
came to Mantua to give her singing lessons, and
after his return to Ferrara, remained one of her
most constant correspondents. Now, however, a
sudden fancy to learn other instruments seems to
have seized her, and this same summer she wrote
to the great musician Atalante himself, begging him
to send her a silver citarra or lute, with as many
strings as he chooses, but which shall be a “ fair
and gallant thing to see.” Atalante, it appears,
had visited Mantua in 1491, at the pressing en-
treaty of the Marquis, to take the leading part in
a performance of Polizianio’s “ Orfeo,” which took
1 Luzio, op. cit., p. 243,