for notating rhythms within these limitations. A handful
of theoretical and practical sources from around 1300
documents attempts to expand Franco’s system, but the
earliest comprehensive treatise to succeed in doing so
was Marchetto’s Pomerium, which describes primary
and secondary divisions of the breve into two or three
parts and tertiary division into two parts, resulting in
divisions of the breve into two, three, four, six, eight,
nine, or twelve parts, which can then be combined in
various ways, even involving syncopation within and
between breve units. Pomerium became the foundation
of Italian mensural theory of the fourteenth century,
and it sheds light as well on the early stage of French
mensural notation, a system that coexisted with the
Italian and eventually supplanted it.
Further Reading
Editions
Coussemaker, Edmond de, ed. Scriptorum de musica medii aevi
nova series, Vol. 3. Paris: Durand, 1869. (Reprint, Hildesheim:
Olms, 1963. Includes Brevis compilatio, 1–12.)
Gallo, F. Alberto, and Kurt von Fischer, eds. Italian Sacred Music.
Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, 12. Monaco:
Éditions de I’Oiseau-Lyre, 1972. (Includes Ave regina celo-
ruml Mater innocencie.)
Gerbert, Martin, ed. Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra
potissimum, Vol. 3. Saint Blasien, 1784. (Reprint, Hildesheim:
Olms, 1963. Includes Lucidarium, 64–121; and Pomerium,
121–188.)
Herlinger, Jan, ed. The Lucidarium of Marchetto of Padua: A
Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary. Chicago, Ill.,
and London: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Vecchi, Giuseppe, ed. Marcheti de Padua Pomerium, Corpus
Scriptorum de Musica, 6. Rome: American Institute of Mu-
sicology, 1961.
Critical Studies
Berger, Karol. Musica Ficta: Theories of Accidental Infl ections
in Vocal Polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffo
Zarlino. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Gallo, F. Alberto. “Marchetus in Padua und die ‘franco-vene-
tische’ Musik des frühen Trecento.” Archiv für Musikwis-
senschaft, 31, 1974, pp. 42–56. (Includes Ave regina celoruml
Mater innocencie.)
Herlinger, Jan. “Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone.” Music
Theory Spectrum, 3, 1981a, pp. 74–83.
——. “Marchetto’s Division of the Whole Tone.” Journal of the
American Musicologkal Society, 34, 1981b, pp. 193–216.
——. “What Trecento Music Theory Tells Us.” In Explora-
tions in Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Essays in Honor of
Leonard B. Meyer, ed. Eugene Narmour and Ruth A. Solie.
Festschrift Series, 7. Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon, 1988,
pp. 177–197.
——. “Marchetto’s Infl uence: The Manuscript Evidence.” In
Music Theory and Its Sources: Antiquity and the Middle Ages,
ed. André Barbera. Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval
Studies, 1. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press,
1990, pp. 235–258.
Martinez–Göllner, Marie Louise. “Marchettus of Padua and
Chromaticism.” L’Ars Nova Italiana del Trecento, 3, 1970,
pp. 187–202.
Pirrotta, Nino. “Marchettus de Padua and the Italian Ars Nova.”
Musica Disciplina, 9, 1955, pp. 57–71.
Rahn, Jay. “Marchetto’s Theory of Commixture and Interrup-
tions.” Music Theory Spectrum, 9, 1987, pp. 117–135.
Ristory, Heinz. Post-franconische Theorie und Früh–Trecento:
Die Petrus de Cruce–Neuerungen und ihre Bedeutung für die
italienische Mensuralnotenschrift zu Beginn des 14. Jahrhun-
derts. Europäüsche Hochschufschriften, Series 36; Musicol-
ogy, 26. Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, 1988.
Strunk, Oliver. “Intorno a Marchetto da Padova.” Rassegna
Musicale, 20, 1950, pp. 312–315. (Trans., “On the Date of
Marchetto da Padova.” In Oliver Strunk. Essays on Music in
the Western World. New York: Norton, 1974, pp. 39–43.)
Vecchi, Giuseppe. “Su la composizione del Pomerium di Mar-
chetto da Padova e la Brevis compilatio.” Quadrivium, 1, 1956,
pp. 153–205. (Includes Brevis compilatio, pp. 177–205.)
Jan HerlingerMARGARET OF CORTONA, SAINT
(c. 1247–1297)
Margaret of Cortona was a penitent and mystic. Her
Legenda, the most authoritative account of her life,
begins like a tragic romance: Margaret, the beautiful
daughter of a peasant farmer in Laviano, ran away at
sixteen with a nobleman who promised to marry her
but did not. They lived together for nine years and had
a son, but then Margaret’s lover was killed, and she was
shocked into repentance. She left all her possessions
and tried to return home, asking forgiveness. When
her father and stepmother turned her away, she and her
child found refuge in Cortona with two gentlewomen
who were associated with the Franciscan community
there. A few years later Margaret was admitted to the
Franciscan-sponsored Order of Penitents (which later
became the third order). She spent the rest of her life
as a humble penitent in Cortona, enduring extreme
deprivations to atone for her sins and devoting her time
to charity, peacemaking, and intense periods of prayer
and meditation. By the time she died, local belief in
her sainthood was so strong that miraculous cures were
spontaneously reported at her tomb. Despite repeated
petitions to the papacy, however, annual celebration of
her feast day (22 February) in Cortona was not offi cially
authorized until 1515, and her actual canonization was
delayed until 1728.
The early documents about Margaret raise tantaliz-
ing questions because they speak with multiple and
sometimes clashing voices. Although her Legenda is
attributed to the Franciscan friar Giunta Bevegnati,
who served as one of her confessors and eventually
compiled most of the text, in reality it has several layers
of authorship: Margaret recounted her visions while Fra
Giunta took notes; another priest fi lled this role during
the last seven years of her life, when Fra Giunta was
absent from Cortona; other witnesses supplied supple-
mentary information; and the fi nal text was reviewed andMARGARET OF CORTONA, SAINT