The musica secreta or concerto delle dame of Duke Alfonso II d'Este, an ensemble of virtuoso female musicians that performed behind closed doors at the castello

Through forty-five creative and concise essays by an international team of authors, this Cambridge History brings the fifteenth century to life for both special

Witchcraft. Arson. Going AWOL. Some nuns in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy strayed far from the paradigms of monastic life. Cloistered in convents, su

The complex relationship between myths and music is here investigated.

Part of the seminal Cambridge History of Music series, this volume departs from standard histories of early modern Western music in two important ways. First, i