Praticar l'armonia

Abstract

A full-page woodcut illustration opens Silvestro Ganassi’s "Regola Rubertina". Since this was the first Italian instrumental method for the new viola da gamba, its illustrated title page is of great significance, for, alongside the text, it clearly presents the viol’s construction, handling, and musical usage to the user of the instrumental method. Up to now, the title page has been reproduced in new editions, translations, and also in art-historical studies, but hardly discussed. This article is therefore devoted to an analysis of Ganassi’s illustrated title-page, and indeed from several perspectives that take into account both external formal contexts (production, integration of the image, etc.) as well as the context inherent to the image (compositional structure, manner of presentation, themes, etc.). Thus the woodcut will be explored as a book illustration, as an iconographical source, and, finally, as pictorial art. Shown will be the manner in which it corresponds to contemporary conventions, the models on which the title image is based, and the points in which it displays independent and novel design.

Keywords

Silvestro Ganassi; Viola da gamba; Musikikonographie; Concerto