University of Virginia Library

Added Material

The following sequence is clearly different, for the conventional signs
do not follow on from the end of a complete sequence of 23 letters, but are
found in gatherings added at the end of each partbook:

• 18. Il primo libro de madrigali, a quatro voci. De diversi autori. A notte
  negre. Venice: Girolamo Scotto, 1558.

  RISM 155811. Copy at London, British Library.

  ---

  205

  
  
  

  Landscape quarto: [C:] A-E4 +2; [T:] F-K4 ++2; [B:] Q-V4 X2.

  Note. The Alto does not survive, but was surely signed L-P4 +++2.

The placing of the conventional Maltese crosses to sign an additional
bifolium at the end of each part is significant. The book was apparently
planned to have five gatherings in each part, and signatures were assigned
accordingly. Either Scotto miscalculated, and had to add pages at the end of
each part, or else the editor produced some additional music after printing
was well under way. But the book was set by "vertical setting", so that the
Tenor gathering F, the Alto L and the Bassus Q were prepared with the
Cantus A, and before any other gatherings. Thus is would not have been
possible, if adding another gathering at the end of each partbook, to sign it
with the next available letter; for example, the sixth Cantus gathering could
not have been signed with the letter F without causing potential confusion.
Even so, it is significant that the additional pages were not merely added to
the last lettered gathering of each book, to make six folios.[10] This suggests
that the change came late in the printing process, after much of the work on
the last lettered gatherings (E, K and P) had been completed, after the midpoint
of those gatherings. Given that the last pieces were additional to the
contents found in earlier editions, the late decision to include this new music
is the likely explanation.[11]

The same effect can be seen in Rinaldo da Montagnana's first book of
five-voiced motets (Gardano 1563), with a Maltese cross for the last gathering
of each part, although in other ways that is a normal gathering, with
four folios. Once again, it looks as though further pieces were added at a
late point in preparing the edition. The last four works, occupying six pages,
are for six voices, and the first three of them are by a different composer. It
seems reasonable to argue that someone other than the publisher was financially
responsible for the book, either paying for it directly, or undertaking
to take a large number of copies. This is the easiest explanation of the

willingness of the publisher to add a whole gathering to each partbook, with
the extra costs of labour and (especially) paper, late in the process.

A similar phenomenon occurs in Scotto's edition of the combined first
and second books of madrigals by Verdelot, published in 1540:

• 19. Di Verdelotto Tutti li madrigali del primo, et secondo libro a quatro
  Voci. Venice: Girolamo Scotto, 1540.

• RISM 1228=154020. Copy at Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek.

• Quarto: [C:] A-G4 H2; [T:] a-g4 h2; [A:] AA-GG4 HH2; [B:] aa-gg4 hh2.

Here again, we might assume that the short final gathering merely included
the few madrigals that were left over and to be included after the
completion of gathering G—especially since the edition represents a reprinting
of earlier books. But the evidence suggests otherwise: at the foot of G4v
in all partbooks is the word FINIS. Gathering H contains three additional
madrigals, attributed to Willaert, Verdelot and Barre, none of which had
appeared in earlier editions of either book.[12] Given that Scotto had printed a
five-voiced anthology in the same year, in which Willaert and his "discipulo"
Leonardo Barre were highly featured on the title-page and were first in the
contents,[13] it seems likely that one of these two composers (probably the
younger and less well-known Barre) requested the addition to the present
volume.

A more complex example of the same situation is the following edition,
which started out with partbooks planned to be three gatherings long.
Apparently a whole gathering of music was added at some stage. The printer
could well have chosen to sign the new gathering according to Example 18,
above. The solution actually adopted must have raised questions in the
minds of booksellers, binders or others faced with unbound sheets.

• 20. Metallo: Magnificat a quattro, & a cinque. Venice: Erede di Girolamo
  Scotto, 1603.

• RISM M2435. Copy at London, British Library.

• Quarto: [C:] A-D4; [T:] D-F4 Ff4; [A:] G-K4; [B:] K-M4 Mm4.

In this example, two different methods of coping with the problem of
pre-assigned signatures were used. Cantus and Altus merely employ the next
letter (even though that means a duplication of signatures D and K): Tenor
and Bassus use a duplication of the final letter (even though that was not
necessary for the Bassus). The implication is probably that two different
compositors were involved: there is evidence that, even as late as this volume,
compositors had some freedom in presentation, not merely of the verbal text
(as commonly elsewhere), but also of the musical notation. Therefore,
volumes with this sort of pattern should be examined for evidence of the

compositors reaching slightly different editorial decisions both in layout and
in details of musical notation.

An example such as the following might also suggest that two craftsmen
were involved; but further examination indicates clearly that there was a
change of plan before the book went on sale:

• 21. Massaino: Sacri modulorum Concentus à 8, 9-12 . . . Op. 31. Venice:
  Angelo Gardano, 1606.

• RISM M1285. Copy at Rome, Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia.

• Quarto:

         

  [C:] A-B4 C6 AA4 BB6	[C2:] N-O4 P6 NN4 OO6	[9:] Bd-Dd4
  [T:] D-E4 F6 DD4 EE6	[T2:] Q-R4 S6 QQ4 RR6	[10:] Ee-Ff4
  [A:] G-H6 I6 GG4 HH6	[A2:] T-V4 X6 TT4 VV6	[11:] Gg6
  [B:] K-L4 M6 KK4 LL6	[B2:] Y-Z4 Aa6 YY4 ZZ6	[12:] Hh6

I have arranged the parts in this tabular fashion, in order to highlight
several significant features. The most obvious is the use of the two sets of
signatures for each of the first eight partbooks, representing two four-voiced
choirs. The ordinary run of signatures for the opening gatherings of these
books reached into a second alphabet by the end of the second Bassus, with
the entirely conventional use of Aa. These gatherings carry a standard presentation
and signing for a book of eight-voiced motets, apparently intended
to be complete and self-contained. Folio Aalr has the word "finis" after the
signature: this reflects a common practice in Gardano's shop, indicating the
last gathering of a set of partbooks. In addition, an index of the preceding
pieces is found on folio 6r of each third gathering of these eight partbooks.
After the book was completed in this form, it was expanded to include
additional pieces scored for more than eight voices. The additional signatures
for these works in the first eight partbooks could not use the pattern
"Aa", which had been started in the second Bassus: that was more logically
used for the additional partbooks for voices 9-12. For the added gatherings
of the original partbooks, a new style had to be adopted, and one with
double capital letters, "AA", etc., was employed.[14]