...an excerpt from a booklet from one of our publications... 0086

The First Book of “Madrigals”

In Rome, in the year 1530, the term “madrigal” was printed for the first time on the title page of the Madrigali de diversi excellentissimi musici, Libro Primo de la Serena (“Madrigals of several excellent composers, First Book of the Siren”).
This is known from one altus partbook preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina in Seville, once belonging to Fernando Colón, son of Christopher Columbus. The Bayerische Staatsbibliotek in Munich holds superius and bassus from a 1533 reprint by Valerio Dorico (who most probably also printed the first edition) with two additional chansons by Claudin de Sermisy.
The Libro Primo de la Serena mainly contains four-part madrigals, notably a group of six by Philippe Verdelot, which appear to have circulated in manuscript form and were later printed in the author’s Tutti li madrigali del primo et secondo libro a quatro voci in 1540.
Among these is Trista Amarilli mia, which allegorically describes the struggle of the Roman Church during the Sack of Rome in 1527 – only three years prior to the print – which had left a deep scar on the city and its cultural life.
The Serena contains other pieces printed elsewhere: a well-known French chanson by Clement Janequin (proof of the genre’s popularity South of the Alps), two madrigals by Costanzo Festa (included one for three voices) and one by Maistre Jhan.