intermedii (intermezzi) Either instrumental interludes
played out of sight of the audience, or, more popularly,
stage spectacles by singers, dancers, and actors in cos-
tume, first performed in the Renaissance between the acts
of plays. Sometimes the subject matter of the intermedii
was connected with that of the play, though more often
unrelated pastoral scenes with allegorical figures were pre-
sented. While intermedii were first performed in the 15th
century at the court in Ferrara, the Medici court in Flo-
rence was the scene of many of the most lavish entertain-
ments; the most spectacular was that performed in 1589 at
the wedding of Christine of Lorraine and Ferdinando de’
Medici, for which the music was provided by leading com-
posers, including MARENZIOand CACCINI. In its combina-
tion of music and drama, the intermedio can be regarded as
a forerunner of opera.
Isaac, Heinrich (c. 1450–1517) Flemish composer
Though Isaac was born in Flanders, the first definite ref-
erence to him is in Innsbruck (1484) en route for Florence
to enter the service of Lorenzo de’ Medici. In Florence
Isaac sang in the Cantori di San Giovanni and was regu-
larly employed at the cathedral from 1485. After the death
of Lorenzo (1492) Isaac met Maximilian I, and in 1497 be-
came his court composer. While in the emperor’s employ
he maintained his Florentine connections and eventually
resettled there in 1514. Isaac was one of the few Nether-
landers active in Germany. He wrote a wide range of
music; among his Masses, motets, German lieder, Italian
songs, and instrumental pieces, his Choralis constantinus
(1550–55), a posthumous collection of Mass propers,
stands out as a monumental achievement. Isaac con-
tributed considerably to the Tenorlied, as his skillful set-
tings of “Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen” demonstrate.
Isabella, Archduchess (1566–1633) Infanta of Spain
and coruler of the Spanish Netherlands (1598–1621)
The daughter of Philip II of Spain, Isabella married her
cousin ALBERT OF AUSTRIAunder an arrangement that
made them joint sovereign rulers of the Spanish Nether-
lands. Both Archdukes were enthusiastic patrons of the
arts, Isabella’s taste mainly inclining towards religious art
in a high Counter-Reformation vein. RUBENS painted a
number of works under her patronage, and in 1625 she
commissioned him to design a set of allegorical tapestries
(completed 1628) with titles such as The Victory of the Eu-
charist over Heresy. Rubens and Jan BRUEGHELpainted a
pair of portraits of the Archdukes (Prado, Madrid), and
Hendrik Staben painted them on a visit to Rubens’ studio
(Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). After Albert’s
death (1621) Isabella continued to act as governor of the
Netherlands on behalf of her nephew, the king of Spain,
and relied greatly on Rubens’ advice, sending him on sev-
eral important and successful diplomatic missions.
Isabella (I) of Castile See FERDINAND II AND ISABELLA IIsabelline style See PLATERESQUEIstanbul See CONSTANTINOPLEItalian language In many respects the closest of the ro-
mance languages to Latin, Italian is used, at least as a writ-
ten or second language, by more than 60 million people in
Italy, Switzerland, and elsewhere. By the beginning of the
Christian era, Latin had largely supplanted a number of
early peninsular languages with which it originally coex-
isted. Ligurian, Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Rhaetian, and
Punic had disappeared or been reduced to insignificance,
though some (Etruscan and Punic) may have survived for
a while in ritual use. Greek is still spoken in areas of
southern Italy, but whether it is continuous with that of
Roman times is doubtful. Between 476 and 960 three
waves of Germanic invaders entered Italy. Romanized
Goths under Theodoric (489) had slight effect on vocabu-
lary and were soon submerged by Justinian’s reconquest
(555). Lombards (Langobards) occupied areas north of
the latitude of Spezia–Rimini and further south in Bene-
vento and Spoleto, donating some 280 words to Italian
and many more to various dialects. Franks (from 773)
reached northern and central regions, but it is difficult to
determine which Frankish words (e.g. barone, feudo, ligio
(liegeman), galoppare, bargagnare) date from the era of
Charlemagne and which from the later era of chivalry.
Evidence that a vernacular language is about to be
born exists from the late eighth or early ninth century in
the Indovinello veronese. This is a riddle, of uncertain in-
terpretation but generally comparing ploughing to writing
(plough: pen, oxen: fingers, white meadows: parchment,
black seed: ink). By 960 legal documents record testi-
monies in the vernacular. Like all romance languages, Ital-
ian developed certain features: simplification of gender
with loss of the neuter; loss of the deponent; definite and
indefinite articles; a passive with esse and compound
tenses with habere; prepositional constructions replacing
genitives and datives; comparatives with plus replacing
Latin synthetic comparatives; quia assuming a modern
function (as che). Other typical changes can be exempli-
fied in such words as più (from plus), poi (post), buono
(bonum) and fatto (factum). The earliest literary document
is the Ritmo laurenziano (c. 1150) and a number of other
poems in various dialects are found by about 1200. In the
early 13th century the Albigensian crusade caused
Provençal poets to migrate to Italy and the langue d’oc (see
FRENCH LANGUAGE) came to compete with Tuscan as a lit-
erary language in the northern courts. At the court of
Frederick II, however, the poets of the Sicilian school,
while writing in the troubadour tradition, did so in some
variety of Italian, perhaps a refined version of the local di-
alect (a volgare illustre); their compositions was thenIIttaalliiaann llaanngguuaaggee 2 25555