Bottrigari, Ercole
Bottrigari, Ercole
Bottrigari, Ercole, Italian music theorist; b. Bologna (baptized), Aug. 24, 1531; d. San Alberto, near Bologna, Sept. 30, 1612. He was an illegitimate son of the nobleman Giovanni Battista Bottrigari. He studied mathematics and music in the house of his father, and learned to sing and play several instruments; his house teacher was Bartolomeo Spontone. In 1551 he married a rich lady. In his residence he met many celebrated poets of the day, including Tasso. Having acquired profound learning in several scientific and artistic disciplines, he devoted much of his energies to theoretical musical subjects. He publ, numerous papers, many of a polemical nature.
Writings
ll Patricio ovvero De tetracordi armonici di Aris-tosseno (Bologna, 1593); II Desiderio ovvero De’ concerti di vari strumenti musicali (Venice, 1594, without Bottrigari’s name, but under the pseudonym Alemanno Benelli, anagram of the name of his friend Annibale Melone; 2nd ed. with Bottrigari’s name, Bologna, 1599; modern reprint, with introduction and annotations by Kathi Meyer, 1924; 3rd ed., Milan, 1601, under the name of Melone); II Melone, Discorso armonico (Ferrara, 1602). He left trs. of Boetius and other writers in MS, preserved in the library of the Liceo Musicale in Bolonga.
Bibliography
Notizie biografiche intorno agli studi ed alla vita del Cavaliere B. (Bologna, 1842).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire