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Italian dance documents of thefifteenth centuryIngrid BrainardPublished online: 02 Jun 2008.

To cite this article: Ingrid Brainard (1998) Italian dance documents of the fifteenth century,Dance Chronicle, 21:2, 285-297, DOI: 10.1080/01472529808569312

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Review—Italian Dance Documentsof the Fifteenth Century

Ingrid Brainard

Fifteenth-Century Dance and Music. Twelve Transcribed Italian Treatisesand Collections in the Tradition of Domenico da Piacenza.

Translated and annotated by A. William Smith. 2 vols. Illustrated.Musical examples.

Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 1995. (Dance and Music Series No.4) Cloth $128. ISBN 0-945193-25-4 (Vol. I); ISBN 0-945193-57-2 (Vol. II).

With these two substantial volumes Professor A. William Smith hascontributed in no small manner to our treasury of fifteenth-centuryItalian dance materials.

In Volume I he gives us, besides Foreword and Introduction,the full text, with facing English translation, of three manuals only: theDomenico treatise (PnD), Antonio Cornazano (Rvat), and GiovanniAmbrosio (PnA), each with a chronological biography, a brief intro-duction and list of general contents, a catalogue of manuscript abbre-viations, and, in the case of Cornazano, an additional chronological

© 1998 by Ingrid Brainard www.dekker.com

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bibliography. The remaining documents, manuals as well as text frag-ments, are briefly described and cross-referenced into the fully repro-duced texts as needed. Included in the Introduction are a number ofauxiliary documents, such as letters and eyewitness reports of majorfestivities, among them extensive excerpts from the verse descriptionof the grand Florentine event of 1459 (p. xiv ff), which has been pub-lished before but never with an English translation. Music for thedances, in computerized versions of the original notations and tran-scriptions, follows the texts themselves. The volume concludes with twoIndices—one by subject, the other general—and bibliographies.

Volume II is predominantly a volume of charts. Its bulk isdevoted to Charts of Choreographic Descriptions of the one hundreddances that are preserved in Italian documents. Here, to facilitate com-parison of the different versions of the same dance from the variousmanuals, the texts of the choreographic descriptions have been brokenup into small units; each unit is placed in a box and the boxes placedside by side across each page. "The essence of the content of each row"(p. viii) is given in English in the extreme right-hand column.

Appendix I collates content and concordances, theory, music,and dances in the sources. Appendix II gives the 1517 Nürnberg col-lection of eight Italian dances in their original German with Englishtranslation.

Scattered throughout both volumes are nicely printed facsimi-les of text passages from the extant manuscripts, of the mensurationtables from Domenico and Cornazano, and of musical notations.

Obviously, in a publication of this magnitude and complexity,many editorial decisions have to be made: how best to reproduce theItalian originals; how to deal with their spelling and punctuation, withscribal conventions such as abbreviations and emendations, and withadditions in the texts. How to deal with the music and its placement inthe sources. How to facilitate cross-references from one document tothe other, from one volume of the edition to the other, and from foot-notes to texts. The Introduction and Foreword to Volume I addresssome of these issues; additional explanations are given in the footnotes.

As an organizing principle for the documents themselves andtheir translations Smith has chosen the use of line numbers over theoriginal foliation. This method, he explains, "has been a scholarly prac-tice, especially of classical texts, for hundreds of years" (I, p. 3). While

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that is certainly true, literary texts generally do not contain music, withtitles and occasional verbal directives. Besides, the foliations in the ex-tant dance treatises are not as confusing as all that. Most have clearfolio numbers; in Ambrosio an earlier and a later set appear side byside, but it is easy enough to work that out. With the help of the com-puter it should have been possible to add the folio numbers to the linecount, as David Wilson has done in his edition of the Domenico trea-tise,1 and as Smith himself does in the captions to the manuscript pageshe reproduces. As it stands, the line count is useful only within theperimeters of the present publication.

Furthermore, the system is somewhat misleading when it comesto creating a clear picture of what is actually on the page of a giventreatise. Take the beginning of Domenico's bailoPrexonera (PnD f.l4v0;Smith I, p. 40). Smith's method does not allow the reader to see thatthe word "Intrata," his line 732, is not part of the text but appears atthe end of the musical notation as an indication of a return to the open-ing section of the dance. In Cornazano, too, the "Intrata" directives arewritten underneath the staves at the end of the music (see for this thefacsimile in I, p. 2), but are given a line number in Smith's edition,thereby obscuring the practical implication of the term and altering theline count of the actual text.

I also regret the absence of the chapter numbers that are in themargins of the Domenico treatise but are given here only with the Eng-lish translation. Also missing are the small letters at the beginning ofchapters 4, 6, 7, 8, and 12 as well as in the titles of three of the basse-danze toward the end of PnD, which are guide letters for future deco-rative capitals that were never executed. Explanations are given in foot-notes 13 (p. xiv) and 3 and 5 (p. 10), but it would have been nice to seeboth the numerals and the letters in their proper place; a considerablenumber of cautiously formulated footnotes in both volumes would thenhave been unnecessary. But, as Smith points out (I, p. 3), it is not hisintent to create exact replicas of the pages of the three manuscripts. Wemust accept that.

While punctuation and capitalization have been "more or lessmaintained in the transcription" (I, p. 3), contractions have been mod-ernized and abbreviations eliminated. The several pages of the latterare therefore almost superfluous, but they will assist the investigatorwho prefers to read the treatises in their original form.

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The principal tasks of a bilingual edition must obviously be anaccurate rendition of the originals and a reliable translation. On bothcounts, I am afraid, Fifteenth-Century Dance and Music falls somewhatshort of what we hoped it would be. In the transliterations of the Italiantexts there are too frequently instances where individual words or let-ters have been misread and scribal emendations overlooked.

On the first folio of the Domenico treatise (Smith I, p. 10, line13) begins a new sentence with the words "L'opérante argumëta ...";the term for "argues" or "discusses" has become avgunionta in Smith.Similarly, at the top of Domenico's f.l™ the last word should read az-idenzia, not erzadergia as Smith has it (p. 10, line 24). Admittedly, in thelatter case the ink in the original has run and the crucial word is hardto decipher, but the context is one of Domenico's major themes: thegoodness of dance, which expresses itself in both the natural and themany accidental motions. That should have helped. All through thetexts letters have been misread, guide letters in the margins overlooked,scribal emendations not taken into account, and sentence structuresignored. Such mishaps serve as reminders that a faithful rendition of acenturies-old manuscript requires infinite patience and care, and thatrigorous proofreading is imperative.

If one considers loyalty to the primary source an essential req-uisite for an edition it is difficult to comprehend why Smith, in his listof general contents of the Domenico treatise (I, p. 8), adds "(for two)"to both versions of the bassadanza Mignotta, when the descriptionclearly states that the vechia is to be danced "in a line by as many aswill" (PnD f.26vo; Smith I, p. 64, line 1339) and the noua "also in aline" (PnD f.27; Smith I, p. 64, line 1356), without further specifica-tions. The "(for two)" addition is repeated in Volume II (pp. 215 and219) and in the Index (p. 278), yet only one of the eight sources thatcarry Mignotta vecchia indicates that the choreography is for two; allthe others prescribe an unlimited number of participants one behindthe other {alla fila), or multiples of two. Cornazano's version ofMignotta nova likewise suggests in its title that, space permitting, manydancers may join in, provided that men and women alternate in theformation. Smith's assumption that the dancers are "probably forminga column with men on one side and women on the other" (I, p. 103,fn. 3) is not tenable. A parallel situation also exists in the bassadanzaPrincipessa (cf.II, pp. 255ff).

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Like the transliterations of the Italian texts, the translationsalso give cause for concern. These concerns range from the interpreta-tions of specific terms and their various shades of meaning to the trans-lation of sentences, especially those in which a fifteenth-century authorcites a popular saying or a proverb. In many such instances Renaissancedictionaries, such as Florio or Cotgrave, can point the way.

As a matter of general policy technical terms have been left inItalian; brief translations appear in the Index as well as in the foot-notes. Sometimes, however, one would have appreciated a bitmore of a commentary, especially with terms whose meaning varywith the context in which they stand, such as tempo and misura, bottaand motto I1 When terms are translated, certain inconsistencies be-come noticeable. Domenico's modi cinque (Smith I, p. 21, line 251) isfirst translated as "five ways" (in which to dance the bassadanza),which is fine. Later, however, the translation of modi is changed to"styles" (I, p. 23, line 300, and consistently thereafter) which is lessgood. Since the Italian terminology remains the same, the translationshould have done likewise. Persona is sometimes given as "body," some-times as "torso," and more common words in the dancing masters' vo-cabulary, such as appresso, imprima, poi, also receive this somewhatarbitrary treatment.

Then, there are places where things have simply gone wrong.Smith translates ragione, as in Cornazano's "in ragione di canto" (I, p.68 and text p. 91; also Index p. 279) as "region," which in Italian isregione. Florio's "reason, right. . . due consideration" as well as theterms given in modern dictionaries all point in the right direction: "byreason, or virtue, of the music" or "in accordance with the music" iswhat Cornazarto intended to say.

Regrettable also is the translation error that has occurred in thedelightful passage in which Cornazano praises the artistic accomplish-ments of the Ferrarese court (Rvat f.3bisvo-4; Smith I, p. 86, lines 165ff).The stumbling block is the word odU which does not mean "ode" butrather comes from odire (udire in modern Italian), meaning "to hear,to listen." The English text, starting with Smith's line 165, should read"he who wishes to be transported from this world into the next needonly listen to Pietro Bono play [music]." On the subject of music: in thearray of instruments against whose playing the dancer is invited to testhis ability (PnAf.25-25V0; Smith I, pp. 151-2, lines 1186ff) appear—next

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to shawms, lute, organ, and harp—tamburino confiauti. Clearly what ismeant here is pipe-and-tabor, rather than "drum with flutes."

Troublesome among individual words is the title messer, whichis given to members of noble families as well as to professionals of re-pute. The translation "Mister" is not ideal when the reference is toprinces like Leonello d'Esté or Alessandro Sforza. Florio's "a Sir, amaster. Also my Sir" meets the case much better. Applied to the dancecreators who are cited, for example, in Ambrosio's tables of bassedanzeand of balli (Smith I, p. 120ff), "Master Domenico" or "Master Gio-vanni Ambrosio" would have been preferable.

If one wishes to convey the flavor of a sentence, it sometimespays to stick closely to the original wording. Take Domenico's lovelycomparison of the dancer's movement to the gentle motion of a gon-dola on the little waves when the sea is calm "segondo suo natura" (PnDf.lTO; Smith I, p. 12, lines 47-8). Would not the literal "according to itsnature" have been stylistically more pleasing than Smith's matter-of-fact "as it normally is"?

Now we come to the popular sayings that especially Domenicolikes to use from time to time. Because they are idiomatic in nature theyare not easy to render in English. Two examples may serve to demon-strate the problem. In his chapter 11 (PnD f.3v0; Smith I, p. 16, line159ff) Domenico bemoans the fact that only a few musicians are ableto get the various meters just right, just as "not every bird can recognizethe grain." The image of the birds is continued in the next sentence: "ifthe geese (oche) are to live one must open the food baskets for them,meaning that the ignorant can live [only] where there is abundance(divide)." In Smith's translation oche becomes "eyes" and divitie, "gods."In the fourteenth chapter of his theoretical introduction, Domenicopoints out the various ways in which the step-units of the dance meterscan be fitted into Quadernaria rhythm (pnD f.6; Smith I, p. 22, lines309-10). This, he maintains, is beautiful if you know how to do it, butit is not biava da bagoni, that is, "fodder for the peacocks" or, as wemight say, "chicken feed." Smith's "fodder for dabblers," while cor-rectly conveying the dancing master's meaning, is a little farther fromthe original than it needs to be.

Some of the problems that beset the three treatises that arereproduced in full also plague the ones that are only summarized(Smith I, p. 187ff). Each of these is briefly described and the theoretical

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and practical contents as well as the scribal abbreviations listed. Textpassages, or poems, that are unique to a source are added in each case.

For most of the smaller documents Smith lists the dance titles,in modernized spellings, under the heading "Practice." What he meansby that, without actually saying so, is that the items contained in the listsappear in the order and under the titles they are given in the practicalportions of the manuscripts (i.e., in the choreographic descriptions). Sofar, so good. But when we come to the Siena Guglielmo (Sa; Smith I,pp. 197ff) we find that the "Practice" directive is followed by "Table ofContents," one for bassedanze and a second for balli. This, as it turnsout, is also a listing of the choreographic descriptions contained in thesource but as printed leads one to assume that what is given here arethe tables from the manuscript itself, which is not the case.

Siena does indeed include two tables of contents: Rvbrica dellebassedanze di messere Domenico caualiere piasentino (f.34voff); Rubricade balli factiper Miss[ere] Domenico caualieripiacentino (f.61ff). With-out being told, a newcomer to the material cannot possibly be expectedto know that. Two of the bassedanze, Ginevra and Alessandresca, do notappear in the original Rvbrica but are fully described in the text of themanuscript. Smith's Morosa is Amorosa in the Rvbrica but Morosa inthe description. The second version of Mignotta that is listed in theRvbrica is "nuoua, sei o octo alla fila" (Sc.f.35) and in the descriptionis entitled "Mignota alia fila quatro o sei o octo ballano" has become"(version for two) vecchia" in Smith's table of contents. This is factuallycorrect: the choreography (Sc.f.45ff), attributed to "Dominum Domini-cum," is indeed that of Domenico's Mignotta vecchia. In the originalRvbrica de balli nr. 4 is Meschina for two dancers, which does not appearin Smith's table. Instead, he lists La Marchesana, which Guglielmoomits from the Rvbrica. (The choreographic description oí Meschina ison f.51vo-52 of the Siena codex, Marchesana on f.63vo-64vo. Both dances,with concordances, can be found in Smith II, pp. 213ff and 197ff.) Dis-crepancies such as these, however slight, might have warrented an ex-planatory footnote or two. Missing altogether in the present publicationis the Bailo chiamato foglie di guglielmo due ballano dandosi mano(Siena f.85-6), which is a pity.

The modernized spelling of the dance titles must be accepted,whether one likes it or not. But one worries a little when an initial letterhas been left off in the interest of conformity with other sources, as in

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the title of Giorgio's baleto chjamato tangelosa in dua (NYp f.29™)>which appears as Angelosa in Smith (I, p. 195). Two lines above that asmall but significant misreading has occurred; the title in questionshould be Bialte de Chastiglia, rather than Bialre (more about that later).The misspelling of Goioso Spagnuolo, last in this section, can only bean oversight; the title is spelled correctly in the caption to the facsimilepage on page 196. The very last dance in the Giorgio manuscript (NYpf.36) is here called Santomera. I agree with Andrea Francalanci that itought to be Gianzometa3; other solutions for this hard-to-read title arecited in Smith (II, p. 237, fn. 1). At the end of the section devoted toNYp is a reference, "See Fig. 13, p. 198." Surely what is meant is Fig.12, p. 196 (i.e., the sample page in facsimile from Giorgio). Figure 13is a reproduction from the Siena Guglielmo and has nothing to do withthe document under discussion. This, I fear, is more of the proofreadingdilemma.

Part II of Volume I is devoted to the music for the dances. Here,a brief Foreword notwithstanding, readers are left pretty much on theirown. Yet there are many aspects to this music that require explanations,from relatively simple notational matters, such as clefs and time signa-tures, the use of punctus divisiones and augmentationes, to the morecomplex questions of speed and meter, the proportional changes oftempo, and the like. Not every reader can be expected to be conversantwith the ins and outs of mensural notation; some assistance from theauthor is essential if the melodies and consequently their transcriptionsare to make any sense. Unfortunately, there are no footnotes in thissection, no rationale is given for the alternative readings that are addedhere and there to the transcriptions, and only a few studies on fifteenth-century notational practices are cited in the bibliography.

According to the Foreword, the notation is meant to appear "asclose to the original as possible" (p. 213). However, the chosen com-puter font is by no means as precise as the handwriting of the fifteenth-century scribes. The placement of the notes in the staff is frequentlyambiguous. Some examples are the minims at the top of page 219 (Bel-reguardo), those at the bottom of page 221 (Colonnese), or the thirdnote from the end of the first staff of Amoroso (p. 214). Without thetranscriptions, which in all three cases give the correct reading, a pro-spective student would be hard pressed to determine where exactly inthe staff the notes belong.

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Occasionally a time signature is missing, for example, the G atthe beginning of the third phrase of Cornazano's version of La Sobria(top of p. 258). The second note of the fourth phrase of Leoncello(measure 8 of the transcription, toward the end of p. 239) should beb-flat in all four sources that carry the tune, not just in Cornazano.Ironically, the correct reading, from Ambrosio, can be found in thefacsimile on page 240. With careful editing, errors like these could havebeen avoided. It would then also have been noticed that the pages ofGelosia are not in the right order. The beginning of the music is on page227, the remainder on the preceding page. What follows on page 228is the end of the bassadanza tenor Collinetto and has nothing to do withthe bailo.

On the whole, it seems to me that Smith's intention was to con-vert the early notations into modern ones without attempting to make thetunes fit the dances to which they belong. While such an approach cer-tainly has merit, there are times when a glance at the requirements ofthe choreography would have helped the transcription. An example isthe opening phrase oîBelfiore (p. 216), which is to be repeated three times.For this passage Domenico prescribes "tempi xii de piua.. . in mexuraquadernaria" (PnD f.15). Smith's modern version, in which he shortensthe note values vis-à-vis his other transcriptions and leaves the musicalaccents unconsidered, results in three measures, not enough to accom-modate the twelve piva step-units. The problem is easily solved if onechanges the note values from his % JT3 J J J | J ^ J j ^ X 3 J i (etc)to v// J. J>J J ¡J J~J J J~J¡ (etc.). The resulting four measures,three times repeated, fit the choreography exactly and are musicallymore satisfying. Another instance comes at the end of Leoncello, whoselast short musical figure should, at least for Domenico's version,change back to 4/4 time, since at the end of the choreographic descrip-tion of Leoncello vecchio it is clearly stated that the two concludingmovimenii are to go "in mexura quadernaria" (PnD f.9; Smith I, p.30, line 473). This directive is not repeated at the end of Leoncellonuovo, but the movement sequence is identical.

Then, there are the signa congruentiae in La Sobria that appearover the semibreves of the second phrase in the second staff on page258 and again in the first staff on page 259. Surely these should berendered as fermatas in modern notation. The choreography here de-mands a mimed dialogue between two of the four suitors behind the

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lady's back; Domenico's intention appears to have been to give thegentlemen as much time as they choose to take for their little mimingscene—hence the fermatas.

Fermatas also appear at the end of the Giove/Jupiter tune (p.230) but are missing in the transcription. At the beginning of this bailoall four sources have a C-clef and b-flat. There is nothing "hypothetical"about starting the transcription on b-flat, as the alternative reading insmall print under the staff suggests. Also in Giove, at the very top ofpage 230, the £ 3 sign in Domenico and Cornazano is a proportion signat the point of transition from bassadanza to piva meter. To be consis-tent, the piva section should have been transcribed in triplets under a2/4 signature.4

Granted that "multiple hypotheses are possible" (I, p. 213), butone would have wished that in cases where the written evidence is clearthe transcription would be likewise, and where it is not, the neededcommentary would have been given. That way the music section wouldhave turned out to be more satisfactory.

Now to Volume II. The Charts of Choreographic Descriptionswill without doubt be helpful to anyone who does not have access to thedocuments themselves. They also allow one to see at a glance the fre-quency with which a given dance is transmitted, which indirectly is atestimonial to its popularity during the fifteenth century.

For reconstruction purposes it must be kept in mind that thedocuments span the activities of two, if not three, generations of danc-ing masters and that the dances underwent changes over time and prob-ably also from one location to another. In recreating one of these works,therefore, one should not automatically transfer a missing component,step or step-sequence, from a later treatise into an earlier one. Smith'sadmonition of caution to the reconstructor is fully justified. The Englishsummary in the right-hand column has to be understood merely as arough guide to the contents of each individual box.

What to place into a box has to be decided on the merits ofeach individual case. As a general rule it would seem advisable notto separate a movement element from the dance phrase in which itbelongs. For example, Boxes 7 and 8 of the choreographic descriptionof Domenico's La Pizochara (II, p. 247) clearly belong together asindicated by the verb form tocando: The four men make a reverencewith the right foot while touching their ladies' hand. The corresponding

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passage in the Siena Guglielmo requires a similar treatment. Many otherinstances of a like nature could be cited.

While one could argue about the spelling of some of the dancetitles, one must concede that in many cases more than one version of atitle exists and that an author has every right to make a choice. But Iwonder how Petit Riense managed to become PETIT RINENSE (II, p.241 and elsewhere) when, in the table of contents of the Ambrosiotreatise (PnA f.6), the spelling is clearly petit riense and alongside themusic (f.58v0-65v0) it is petit vriens. I suspect that the Italian scribe didnot quite know how to deal with the French name of this bailo whichis, we are told, a bailo francese.

Another instance of a misread title is Bialte di Chastiglia fromthe Giorgio manuscript of the New York Public Library (f.28v0). Smithreads this as BIALRE DI CHASTIGLIA and presents his argumentsin a long footnote (II, p. 40, fn. 1). What has not occurred to him is thepossible connection to the Burgundian Beaulte de castille in both theBrussels manuscript and in Toulouze. Although the Italian choreogra-phy is a boleto and the Burgundian a bassedanse, both are for threedancers, unusual for Burgundy, and both show in their internal struc-ture distinct similarities, in particular the riverenze, or honneurs, thatrecur at regular intervals. As one would expect there is a great dealmore activity in the baleto, but a family resemblance to Beaulte is unde-niably there.

The case of Bialte/Beaulte is but one of several instances wherethe contemporary Italian and French-Burgundian repertoires overlap.The Bassa di Schastiglia (II, p. 23) and the Danza chiamata bassafran-zesse in dua (II, p. 25) belong to this group, as does the Bassadançafrancesse chiamata Borges in doi (II, p. 44). In the latter, three singlesteps "tomino indietro" follow directly on pairs of forward-moving sem-pii. This has Smith worried (cf. fn. 1, p. 44) but is easily explained if oneperceives the three backward singles as replacements of the threereprises usual in the bassesdanses of the northern countries. The con-tinenze are the equivalent of the Burgundian branle. Thus, nothing ismissing here and nothing needs to be added. Borges is a perfectlyorthodox bassedanse in the Burgundian manner, rendered in Italianterminology.

While on the subject of stepping dances: The two versions ofthe bassadanza Damnes from the Siena Guglielmo (II, p. 73ff) have

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been reversed in the present edition. The second one, for which Smithgives lines 2690-763, comes first in the manuscript (f.57vo-59); the otherone, "lines 2595-660," is on f.59vo-61.

Finally, a few brief comments regarding the Nürnberg manu-script (Smith II, pp. 325ff). The translations on the whole are adequate,but why not stick close to the original and give the title of the smallcollection (top box on p. 325) as "Within are written (a 'c' is missing inthe word geschähen) the Italian dances"? "Balli" is not the best choicesince der Spanier is the bassadanza La Spagna, here to be danced "withdouble steps (baßduppeln) throughout" (box 3, p. 325). Also in the samebox appears the Latin word Item for the first time, which does not mean"item" as Smith has it here and in all later instances, but rather "then,"or "thus," or "note that," roughly equivalent to the Italian "ornota" thatDomenico likes to use as the beginning of theoretical chapters. The"whereas" in our judicial parlance also comes to mind.

To demonstrate the pitfalls that a translator/editor has to avoid,let me use the fifth of the Nürnberg dances, Leoncell (= Leoncello;Smith II, p. 329), as an example. Apart from the "Item" at the begin-ning, the directive in Box 4 should read in English "he on the right sidegoes around to the left side with a double step." Where the unexplained"one" in brackets in the same box comes from I cannot fathom.

Also, in this same sentence a scribal error occurred in the origi-nal and was corrected there. The text that Smith has placed into Box 4in actuality reads: "darnach get der auff der rechten Seiten umb hin auffdie reehten scyten linck seiten " The scribe caught the mistake andcrossed out the second, erroneous, "rechten seyten." Since such emen-dations are noted, most of the time, in the Italian treatises (e.g., PnDf.5; Smith I, p. 20, line 248), this one should have been acknowledgedas well.

A little farther down, in Boxes 7 and 8 oí Leoncell, a matter ofa dance-technical nature arises. Here the dancer is told to depart with"4 bass simmpeln und mit einem baßduppel mit einem repreß." Smith'stranslation has "with 4 baßsimpeln (= single steps), a baßduppel (=double step), and a repreß (= ripresa)." Literally, however, the direc-tive says "he goes with 4 single steps, and with one double step with oneripresa," which could mean that the double step ends in a ripresa, acombination not uncommon in Italian dances of the period. Whetheror not this is so, a translater should be consistent in his choice of words;

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ITALIAN DANCE DOCUMENTS 297

if the German word "mit" is once correctly translated as "with," itshould remain so all the way through. How to interpret such a passageought to be left up to the reconstructor.

The same goes for the word "get" ("geht" in modern German),which means "goes." This nearly always implies a direction, as in Box9, immediately following the sentence discussed above: "darnach getsie auch zu im wie er," in English "after that she also goes to him as heto her" (i.e., she approaches him, not with "similar" actions) (fns. 3 and4), but with the identical steps he performed in the preceding passage.The exact same problem arises in Box 12. Smith's "performs" (Box 9)and "depart" (Box 12), while nicer English, do not quite meet the case.

To sum up, then: We are grateful to have Smith's publicationavailable to us, and we appreciate the effort that went into its produc-tion. As it stands, Fifteenth-Century Dance and Music will serve nicelyas an introduction to the rich materials contained in and relating to thesources, and as a handy reference work not only for students who arejust beginning to explore the field and may not yet dare to approach thedocuments themselves without assistance, but also for those with expe-rience who may wish to quickly verify a biographical detail or check thedifferent versions of a choreography. That we are saddened by the fre-quency with which errors have occurred goes without saying. Neverthe-less, the two volumes are well worth having.

Notes

1. David Wilson, Sources for Early Dance, Series I: Fifteenth-CenturyItaly (Cambridge: The Early Dance Circle, 1988; rev. ed. 1995).

2. See, for some of these, Barbara Sparti, Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro:De Pratica Seu Arte Tripudii (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993),pp. 217ff.

3. Andrea Francalanci, "The Copia di M° Giorgio del Giudeo di bai-lare bassedanze e balletti," Basler Handbuch für historische Musik-praxis XIV, 1990, p. 173.

4. See Sparti, pp. 69ff and 188-9.

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