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The life and death of Caterina Martinelli: new light on Monteverdi's ‘Arianna’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Edmond Strainchamps
Edmond Strainchamps
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo
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Extract

In the early spring of 1608 a calamity befell the Gonzaga court at Mantua with the sudden death of their young virtuoso singer, Caterina Martinelli. And the shock felt at her untimely demise was made all the worse by the realisation that the court's prestige and the standing of Duke Vincenzo himself were thereby threatened. More precisely, what was at risk were the elaborate plans that the Mantuans had made – plans in which Caterina Martinelli had figured very prominently – for an extraordinary series of musical-theatrical events to be held later in that spring to which the whole world (or at least all of it that mattered) had been invited.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 5 , October 1985 , pp. 155 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Negotiations, in fact, started as early as 1604. The first documents touching on the proposed matrimony are in Mantua, Archivio di Stato (hereafter ASM), Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 205.

2 The words come from the dedication by Federico Follino, dated July 1608, to the Compendio delle sontuose feste. (See note 3 below.)

3 The official and lengthy description of the events that took place in May and June 1608 is in [Follino, F.,] Compendia delle sontuose feste fatte l'anno M.DC.VIII. nella città di Mantova, per le reali nozze del Serenissimo Prencipe D. Francesco Gonzaga, con la Serenissima Infante Margherita di Savoia (Mantua, 1608).Google Scholar Excerpts from the Compendio are published in Solerti, A., Gli albori del melodramma (Milan, 1904–1905/R 1969), II, pp. 145–8, iii, pp. 207–34.Google Scholar See also Nagler, A. M., Theatre Festivals of the Medici, 1539–1637 (New Haven, 1964), pp. 177–85.Google Scholar

4 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 976. Fachoni's name is spelled throughout the present article as he himself spelled it in his extant letters. Despite his known preference, early Italian scholars (notably Canal, Bertolotti and Ademollo) respelled it, and several altered forms of the name have continued in the literature.

5 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 976. The original text of the letter appears as Document 1 in the Appendix to the present article. It appears also in Ademollo, A., La bell’ Adriana ed altre virtuose del suo tempo alla corte di Mantova (Città di Castello, 1888), p. 37Google Scholar, though with inaccuracies that are corrected here.

6 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 976. For the original text, see Appendix, Document 2. The letter is printed also in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 36, n. 1.Google Scholar

7 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2258 (Minute della Cancelleria). The actual letter sent to Arrigoni is unknown; the document in the Mantuan archives is a draft prepared for fair copy (see Figure 1). For the original text, see Appendix, Document 3. A version of the letter appears in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 38.Google Scholar

8 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 1123. The original text appears as Document 4 in the Appendix. Susan Parisi kindly called this letter to my attention, and I am grateful to her for so doing.

9 It will be noted that the duke does not mention the virginity test in this letter. Perhaps he dropped it, reassured by Donato Martinelli's willingness to permit it. No document has been found in the Mantuan archive reporting that such an examination took place; if the duke did receive such a report, he must have destroyed it.

10 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 976. The original text appears as Document 5 in the Appendix. The letter is also transcribed in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 39.Google Scholar

11 The information comes from Paolo Fachoni's letter of 17 August 1603 (‘Dimani parte Catterinuccia con suo avo e sua madre et il Gobbino qual è stato suo mastro, per la Marca, volendo visitare la Madona del’ oreto [sic]’), ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 976. Why Fachoni always called Donato Antonio Martinelli Caterina's grandfather (avo) is unclear. In all other sources – including Donato's own letter of 19 July 1603 (see Appendix, Document 2) – he is always referred to as her father (padre).

12 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 977. The original text appears as Document 6 in the Appendix. The letter is also printed in Ademollo, Adriana, p. 40, n. 2, and quoted in Bertolotti, A., Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga duchi di Mantova nei secoli XVI e XVII (Modena, 1885/ R 1977), pp. 125f.Google Scholar

13 Nigel Fortune has summarised the cases for and against linking Cenci, and Giuseppino, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), vii, pp. 417f.Google Scholar See also Fortune, N., ‘Italian 17th-century Singing’, Music and Letters, 35 (1954), pp. 211, 213f and 218Google Scholar; and Bianconi, L., ‘L'officinina cacciniana di Pietro Maria Marsolo’, preface to P. M. Marsolo: Secondo libra dei madrigali a quattro voci, Musiche Rinascimentali Siciliane 4 (Rome, 1973), pp. xx f.Google Scholar

14 The original text appears in Solerti, A., Le origini del melodramma: testimonianze dei con-temporanei (Turin, 1903/R 1969), pp. 161fGoogle Scholar.

15 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2260 (Minute della Cancelleria). The original text appears as Document 7 in the Appendix. The letter is also printed in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 41, n. 2.Google Scholar

16 Duke Vincenzo's decretum, dated 5 September 1606, granting Caterina a house in the Aquila district of Mantua is extant in ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Libro dei Decreti, no. 53 [1605–12], fol. 105. The decree, which begins by declaring the duke's intention to signify his gratitude for her outstanding talents and her daily services as a singer, specifies that the house was donated inter vivos to Caterina and her heirs and successors, with her right to possess it at once. Furthermore, so that she might marry a man of honourable status, the decree carries the duke's authorisation in advance that Caterina might give the house as a dowry to a future spouse. The text of the decree appears as Document 8 in the Appendix. It is referred to in Bertolotti, A., Musici alla corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal secolo XV al XVIII: notizie e documenti raccolti negli Archivi Mantovani (Milan, 1890/R 1969 and 1978), p. 82.Google Scholar

17 Arnold, D., ‘Martinelli, Caterina’, The New Grove Dictionary, xi, p. 719.Google Scholar

18 Reiner, S., ‘La vag'Angioletta (and Others)’, Analecta Musicologica, 14 (1974), pp. 44ffGoogle Scholar, has convincingly argued that Caterina sang Venus, the principal role, in Gagliano's Dafne, and neither Cupid nor Daphne, as has been widely maintained. Reiner has indicated (op. cit.) that he believes that Caterina also performed in a second commedia, now unknown, during Carnival 1608.

19 Gagliano's preface to La Dafne, first printed with the published score in Florence in 1608, is reprinted in Vogel, E., ‘Marco da Gagliano: zur Geschichte des florentiner Musiklebens von 1570–1650’, Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 5 (1889), pp. 558–62Google Scholar, and in Solerti, , Le origini, pp. 78–89.Google Scholar

20 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2712, fasc. iv, letter 4 (with enclosure). The original text of both the letter and the enclosed note of Contotto is in the Appendix as Document 9. The note is also printed in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 43, n. 1Google Scholar, though Ademollo thought the note was written by Antonio Costantini.

21 The last week of Carnival in 1608 was 13–19 February, with the most important days – those on which feste were usually held – being that year 14, 16, 17 and 19 February, i.e. giovedì grasso, sabato grasso, domenica and marledì grasso, respectively.

22 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2712, fasc. xxiii, letter 30. The original text of the letter appears as Document 10 in the Appendix.

23 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2163. The original text of the letter appears in the Appendix as Document 11. Excerpts from its second paragraph are printed in Davari, S., N otizie biografiche del distinto maestro di musica Claudio Monteverdi desunte dai documenti dell' A rchivio Storico Gonzaga (Mantua, 1885), p. 14Google Scholar; Solerti, , Albori, i, p. 91Google Scholar; Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 43Google Scholar; and Reiner, , ‘Angioletta’, p. 54.Google Scholar All accept the date, clearly written on the letter in Ferdinando's own hand: 2 February 1608. But this cannot be the correct date for the letter because (1) it would mean that Caterina was gravely ill but recovered and sang remarkably well at the end of Carnival – that is, in the week of 13–19 February (see the letter of Annibale Chieppio quoted below) – and then fell gravely ill again before 28 February (the date of Costantini's letter first reporting her condition); and (2) Prince Francesco, the letter's addressee, and Duke Vincenzo did not leave Mantua for Turin (via Milan) until 22 February, as is reported in a dispatch sent to Rome on that day (quoted in Reiner, , ‘Angioletta’, p. 74Google Scholar). But none of this roundabout reasoning is necessary. The first paragraph of the letter contains the cardinal's consoling remark made in response to Francesco's news that he had broken Lent by eating eggs with Count de Fuentes, the Spanish governor of Milan, and since Lent began on 20 February in 1608, Ferdinando's letter is not from earlier than that. I have proposed the date 2 March for his letter because I believe the most likely mistake Ferdinando could have made at the beginning of a new month was to write the month he had been putting on all his letters for the twenty-nine days of February. It should be pointed out that Ferdinando wrote nearly all his own letters, and hastily, to judge from the hand, and did not use a secretary to make a fair copy for him. Had he done so the mistake would probably have been corrected 377 years ago.

24 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2712, fasc. iv, letter 5. The original text of the letter appears as Document 12 in the Appendix. The letter is printed in part in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 43, n. 2.Google Scholar

25 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Registri Necrologici, Busta 26 (Morti dal 1608 al 1609), fol. 21': ‘[Venerdì adì 7 marzo 1608] la Sig.ra Catherina di Martinelli Romana nella Contrata dell’ Aquila, è morta di febre e varole in quatordesi dì, di anni n.o 19'. The date of Caterina's death is corroborated by a dispatch sent from Mantua to Rome on the following day, 8 March: ‘La Romanina, an extraordinary singer, has died of smallpox; she was buried yesterday evening, with some pomp, in the Carmelite church. This loss is deplored by everyone in the entire city on account of her having been so exceptionally gifted, and on account of the ineffable pleasure she gave [us] in the two plays performed during the recent Carnival…’ (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Urbinati Latini 1076, i, fol. 171; quoted and translated in Reiner, , ‘Angioletta’, p. 55Google Scholar). Both the date of death and Caterina's age at her death given in these sources are contradicted, however, by documents quoted below.

26 This a slip of the pen, of course. Secretary Costantini, who prepared the fair copy of this letter, as is known from his endorsement of it at its close, and who customarily prepared letters for Duke Vincenzo, seems to have had a mental lapse.

27 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2163 (see Figures 3 and 4). A draft of the letter is also extant, in Ibid., Busta 2269 (Minute di Lettere) (see Figure 2). The original text of the letter appears as Document 13 in the Appendix.

28 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2711, fasc. ii, letter 15. The original text of the letter appears as Document 14 in the Appendix. Excerpts from it are quoted in Canal, P., Delia musica in Mantova: notize tratte principalmente dall' Archivio Gonzaga (Venice, 1881/R 1978), p. 85Google Scholar; Solerti, , Albori, i. p. 94Google Scholar, and Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 42, n. 1.Google Scholar Chieppio's remarks may hint at a problematic status for Caterina at the Gonzaga court, though whatever reasons there might have been for this are not indicated by any known documents. Maria Bellonci, in her Segreti del Gonzaga (4th edn, Milan, 1972Google Scholar), a novelistic treatment of Duke Vincenzo and his court, has declared (pp. 250–2), though, that Caterina was the duke's mistress. Her only evidence for this is Ademollo's title for the second chapter in his La bell' Adriana, ‘L'harem musicale del Duca di Mantova’.

29 Giambattista Marino, L'Adone, Canto vii, stanza 88: ‘Florinda udisti, o Manto,/ Là ne' teatri de' tuoi regi tetti/ D'Arianna spiegar gli aspri martiri/ E trar da mille cor mille sospiri.’

30 ASM, Archivio d'Arco, MS 228 (d'Arco, Carlo, ‘Iscrizioni che furono o sono in Mantova e nel Mantovano trascritte e raccolte da Carlo d'Arco all' anno 1842’), p. 276, no. 34.Google Scholar The original text appears as Document 15 in the Appendix.

31 ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Libro dei Mandati, no. 47 (vol. 98) [1612–18], fols. 9v–10r. The original text appears as Document 16 in the Appendix. A version of the text also appears in Ademollo, , Adriana, p. 44, n. 2.Google Scholar

32 Mantova: la storia (Mantua, 1963), III, pp. 229–32.Google Scholar See also Volta, L. C., Compendio cronologico-critico delta storia di Mantova (Mantua, 1807–1838), V, pp. 249f.Google Scholar

33 The evidence for this comes from a letter of 16 July 1610 written by Bassano Casola (in Mantua) to Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga (in Rome?) reporting, along with other matters, on Monteverdi's compositional activities. The letter indicates that Monteverdi was then preparing a lament ‘given to him by his most serene Highness, of the shepherd whose nymph has died, words by the son of Count Lepido Agnelli for the death of Signora Romanina’ (‘datoglielo da S. A. S. di Pastore che sia morta la sua Ninfa, parole del figliuolo del Sig.r Conte Lepido Agnelli in morte della Sig.ra Romanina’). The letter is in ASM, Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 2718, fols. 532–3. Excerpts from it are printed in Vogel, E., ‘Claudio Monteverdi: Leben, Wirken im Lichte der zeitgenössischen Kritik und Verzeich-niss seiner im Druck erschienenen Werke’, Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 3 (1887), p. 430Google Scholar, and Davari, , Notizie biografiche, pp. 23f.Google Scholar

34 That Monteverdi should incorporate an earlier work into one newly composed is not so surprising. The same letter of Bassano Casola reporting on work under way in the summer of 1610 on the sestina text (see note 33 above) also reports that Monteverdi had ready for publication the Mass for six voices that he had just composed ‘with great study and labour’ on themes from Gombert's motet In illo tempore.

35 Documents quoted in the Appendix have been standardised with regard to accents, capitalisation and punctuation. Many of the abbreviations have been expanded, but all other changes in the original spelling have been indicated by the use of brackets. Unless otherwise stated, documents come from ASM, Archivio Gonzaga.