868 jonathan glixon
For the first time, individual members of the ducal chapel beyond
willaert and giovanni gabrieli now became the subjects of research. one
of the most interesting developments was the appearance in the 1960s
of works dedicated to two 15th-century composers and members of the
cappella, during a period, long before the arrival of willaert, that earlier
research had either ignored or treated as not worthy of study. F. Antonio
gallo published in 1965 an edition of the works of the earliest known mem-
ber of the cappella, Antonius romanus, who served there from about 1420
until at least 1432, and composed, among other things, several motets for
Venetian ceremonial occasions. shortly afterwards appeared giulio cat-
tin’s 1967 study of a composer of the next generation, Johannes de Quadris,
who served at san Marco from the 1430s until 1457 and whose biography
was further enriched by the publication in 1989/90 by lawrence lüttekin
of previously unknown documents from the Vatican archives. Musicolo-
gists also turned their attention to several prominent 16th-century san
Marco musicians. David Bryant and Martin Morell addressed a serious gap
with their studies of giovanni gabrieli’s uncle and teacher, the organist
and composer Andrea, with their publication in 1988 of a biography as
the first volume of a collected edition. Another organist/composer,
claudio Merulo, who worked both in parma and Venice, was the subject
of a 1990 dissertation and several articles by rebecca edwards, as well as
a volume of essays that appeared in 2006. the families of musicians who
led the instrumental ensemble at san Marco in the late 16th century have
also received considerable recent attention: the first chief instrumentalist,
girolamo dalla casa, is the subject of a recent book by colussi, Bryant,
and Quaranta. the Bassano family, prominent in Venice and in england,
where some traveled to serve Henry Viii, has been studied by ongaro,
lasocki, and ruffatti. the nationalistic impulses that spurred much of the
early research on Venetian music were also responsible for the only study
to this point of the life and works of an ordinary singer of the san Marco
chapel, the cretan musician Franghiskos leontaritis, known in Venice as
Francesco londariti, published in 1990 by nikolaos panayotakis.
the singers and later instrumentalists of the cappella ducale do play
prominent roles, collectively, if not as individuals, in several studies that
grew out of intensive research in the Venetian archives. the work begun
by caffi and continued by Benvenuti and lenaerts was completed and
corrected in the important 1986 dissertation by giulio ongaro on the cha-
pel during the time of willaert (along with significant material on the
period from the 1480s until willaert’s arrival in 1527). ongaro discusses
in detail here, and in several subsequent articles, the development of the