| Summary: | "Alfonso I d'Este ruled Ferrara from 1505 to 1534. Thanks to his passionate patronage, and despite frequent wars and chronical economic difficulties, arts and music gained unprecedented peaks. A stunning proliferation of musical images - whether sacred or profane - characterizes Alfonso's ducal reign, reflecting the central role by music in his personal life and in that of the entire city. In fact, musical elements are disseminated in works commissioned not only by the Duke himself, but also by other members of his family, prominent figures of the nobility, and the highest-ranking religious orders, all involved in a fruitful 'dialogue' with the Castle in the name of a shared love for music. Most of this works are here examined in terms of musical iconography for the first time. The corpus offers a broad overview of iconographic themes, imbued of humanistic culture. Music is present at different levels and in various forms conveying laudatory, moral, identity and allegorical meanings, often blended into complex semantic layers with multiple possible readings. A special attention is dedicated to the mythological iconographic program of the Duke's lost studiolo (the Camerino delle Pitture), of which is also presented a new interactive and sonorized virtual reconstruction. Finally, this book includes the very first musical-iconographical complete catalogue about Ferrara under Alfonso I."--
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