Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Music at a Florentine Convent : The Biffoli-Sostegni Manuscript and Suor Maria Celeste Galilei - Laurie  Stras

Music at a Florentine Convent

The Biffoli-Sostegni Manuscript and Suor Maria Celeste Galilei

By: Laurie Stras

Paperback | 31 December 2025

At a Glance

Paperback


$64.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $16.19 with

 or 

Available: 31st December 2025

Preorder. Will ship when available.

The Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, MS 27766 of the Biblioth¨que du Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, is the only volume of sixteenth-century polyphony with a secure provenance in a female convent. Its extraordinary survival is made all the more important by its origin at the Florentine convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, the convent in which Suor Maria Celeste Galilei, daughter of Galileo Galilei, spent the last two-thirds of her life. This Element uses archival sources related to San Matteo to create a historical context for the manuscript's music and the lives of the nuns for whom it was written. Analysis of the music is accompanied by both notated and audiovisual musical examples, performed by the UK all-female early music ensemble, Musica Secreta.

More in Medieval & Renaissance Music from 1000 to 1600

Sound and Symbol, Volume 1 : Music and the External World - Victor Zuckerkandl
The Gesualdo Hex : Music, Myth, and Memory - Glenn Watkins
The Renaissance Flute A Contemporary Guide : A Contemporary Guide - Kate Clark
The Complete Classical Music Guide : DK Ultimate Guides - DK
Harmony of the Spheres : Ancient and Recent Perspectives - Ken Parry
The Madrigal : A Research and Information Guide - Susan Lewis  Hammond
William Byrd : A Research and Information Guide - Richard Turbet
Secular Renaissance Music : Forms and Functions - Sean Gallagher