The influence of Italian Renaissance at the Valois court

Music by Alberto da Ripa, Guillaume Morlaye, Adrian Le Roy

Carmina ludenda
Viola Conti – soprano, viola da gamba
Tommaso Tarsi – Renaissance lute
Cesare Giuffredi – Renaissance guitar and lute

Tickets € 5

Having become acquainted with the realities of Italian Renaissance courts during his military campaigns, Francis I of France sought to revitalize his own kingdom by drawing inspiration from the Italian model. Valois France quickly became a welcoming environment for Italian artists and humanists; figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino, Primaticcio, Benvenuto Cellini, and anti-Medicean republican humanists—including Luigi Alamanni, Antonio Brucioli, and Zanobi Buondelmonti—as well as the virtuoso lutenist Alberto da Ripa, were welcomed at the French royal court. They were valued not only for their artistic expertise but also for their intellectual backgrounds, which helped foster an atmosphere of high culture intended to elevate the court’s prestige.

Taking Baldassarre Castiglione’s *The Book of the Courtier* as a model, the French gentleman began to broaden his education beyond the mastery of arms. France, in particular, saw the guitar become widely popular among amateur courtiers; it was there that series of tablature books exclusively for the instrument were published starting in 1550. These collections included many musical settings of poems—such as those by the court poet Mellin de Saint-Gelais, who had grown up in Italy (where he learned the art of lute-accompanied recitation) and served as the Italian and guitar tutor to the king’s children. *Chansons*—the preferred medium for courtship—almost invariably centered on the theme of love; Saint-Gelais would accompany his sung verses with court dance rhythms such as the galliard and the pavane, as well as compositions by the Franco-Flemish composer Jacques Arcadelt. An anonymous treatise from 1556 on playing the lute and guitar describes how, for the preceding 12 to 15 years, the guitar had been played more than the lute in France. The works of the generation of French lutenists following Ripa—including Guillaume Morlaye and Adrian Le Roy—demonstrate a profound Italian influence stemming from that virtuoso lutenist. Francis I had set a clear course and wisely welcomed expatriate Italian humanists, painters, and musicians with great generosity, knowing how to harness their talents to launch the French Renaissance.