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The Identity of ‘Zuan Piero’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
In a long letter written from London on May 19, 1517, to Alvise Foscari in Venice, Nicolo Sagudino describes a number of incidents showing how Italian musicians were faring at the court of Henry VIII. Among those he mentions were the Venetian organist, Dionisio Memo; and a lutenist, Zuan Piero. Memo had composed a vocal quartet for the king with a Latin title beginning:
Memor est verbi tui
Servo tuo perpetuo
In quo mihi spem dedisti.
He had also brought to the court ‘a lad, so excellent a performer on the lute, that his majesty never wearied of listening to him’. The lad's identity is unknown, but the king's delight at his skill on the lute was the despair of Zuan Piero, who thought of returning to Italy because of it.
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References
1 Brewer, , Letters and Papers, Vol. II, Pt. 2, 1517–18, No. 3259.Google Scholar Also given in the Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1509-19, No. 910, and quoted in full in Brown, R., Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII (London, 1854).Google Scholar Sagudino was Secretary to Sebastiano Giustiniani, the Venetian ambassador in England.
2 ‘Zuan Piero is not in such favor as before and complains, and is quite determined on returning into Italy “sane bene peculiatus” and he does wisely.’ Quoted from R. Brown, 1, 75.
3 ‘Fa’ should probably be read for‘Cha’.
4 Rossi, V.,‘Appunti per la storia della musica alla corte di Francesco Maria I e di Guidobaldo della Rovere’, Rassegna Emiliana, Anno 1 (1888), 453.Google Scholar
5 Giornale Storico della Letterature Italiana, lxxiii, 97.
6 Torrefranca, F., Il Segreto del Quattrocento, pp. 70, 71Google Scholar
7 F. Torrefranca, p. 70.
8 Schering, A., Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen (Leipzig, 1931)Google Scholar, example 95, p. 91. Compare also A. W. Byler, Italian Currents in the Popular Music of England in the Sixteenth Century, unpublished thesis obtainable on microfilm from University of Chicago (1952) for transcription of lute tablature of ‘Cha la danza Zuan Piero’ from BM. MS.Add. 31, 389.
9 Seen. 7.
10 BM. Cotton Vitell. B.III.fol.148; Rymer, , Foedera, XIII, 600.Google Scholar Summarized in Brewer,Letters and Papers, Vol. II, Pt. 2, 1517-18, No. 3744. Mr. R. C. Strong kindly drew myattention to this document.
11 Brewer, Letters and Papers, Vol. II, Pt. 1, 1515-16, No. 1761, April 12, 1516.
12 Brewer, No. 3751, October 17, 1517. BM. Cotton Vitell. B.III.fol.178; Rymer, Foedera, XIII, 601.
13 I am indebted to Professor Carlo Dionisotti for this information as also for the suggestion that the letter from Duke Alfonso may have been written by his secretary,Ludovico Ariosto.