Dodd, Joseph; (2025) Pietro Gaetano's 'Oratio de origine et dignitate musices': edition with translation and commentary. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The Oratio de origine et dignitate musices addresses how humanist scholars believed music should interact with power. Written in the late 1560s by Pietro Gaetano, a little-known singer at Venice’s Basilica San Marco, it has much to offer our understanding of how musical humanism could be applied in statecraft; by forging a more harmonious state it becomes a philosophy with practical purpose. My thesis presents an edition of the Oratio with translation and commentary, prefaced by an introduction which examines the historical and intellectual context of the Oratio as well as my editorial methodology. The ambition of my thesis is threefold: the edition illuminates a worthwhile but obscure manuscript; the translation makes it more accessible to non-Latinists; the commentary sets it in context. The project contributes to securing a piece of intellectual history for future generations since the Oratio is rooted in the Cinquecento and will thus be of interest primarily to musicologists and historians of the period. It predates opera by forty years and proposes ideas key to the development of that genre, ideas drawn from classical literature and philosophy. Additionally, the translation and commentary demonstrate what those familiar with classical texts can contribute. To date, few texts like this have been studied by classicists, yet to understand it fully, one must be aware of the classical allusions and quotations peppered throughout. Through analysis of these, my thesis shows that access to an advanced level of scholarship was not restricted to universities. Gaetano was obviously well-educated but spent his professional life as a musician attached to the Basilica. Yet he shows understanding of both pagan and Christian intellectual traditions wider and deeper than might be expected. This project illuminates the benefits of interdisciplinary approaches to this kind of text and points to new potentially fruitful opportunities for collaborative research.

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