Find in Library

Prince-cardinals Alessandro d’Este (1568-1624) and Maurice de Savoie (1593-1657) were great music lovers and patrons of musicians, and they had a remarkable role in the Roman cultural sphere between 1620 and 1625. By creating or patronising several palaces, churches, squares, gardens and villas, they helped shape the urban, social and musical geography of Rome. Intense musical and cultural activity characterised these places, where clergy and nobility engaged in networking and self-fashioning. Thus the two cardinals encouraged both the production of artistic events that reflected their wealth and status, and the circulation of music, instruments and musicians between their places of origin and Rome.  This paper aims to analyse the cultural and sociopolitical implications of musical practices that unfolded within the Roman urban space. These practices developed in the course of cultural events which the two prelates either organised or attended, and we shall consider them as collective experiences embedded in a political device. Our hypothesis is that the musical experience, to a greater extent than other arts, does not only serve symbolical and ornamental purposes but fully participates in the theatrum mundi. This study combines social history and cultural history in order to explore how the transformation of cultural forms impacted Roman society.