SACERDOTE, DAVID

SACERDOTE, DAVID (1550–1625), composer and banker. He came from Rovré or Rovere in the duchy of Piedmont (today Roreto Chisone in the province of Turin) and is known as the author of a single work written in his youth, Il primo libro di madrigali a sei voci, published in Venice in 1575. Only one copy, and that of the part-book quinto (fifth voice), has been found so far and is in the British Museum. Sacerdote, who at that time lived in Casale Monferrato, dedicated the work to the Marquis Alfonso del Vasto, the son of Isabella Gonzaga, who was governor of the marquisate of Monferrato on behalf of her brother Guglielmo Gonzaga, duke of Mantua.

Sacerdote was also a banker, first at Casale, together with his brother Leone (1576–80), then at Acqui (1580–85), and finally at Cortemilia in Piedmont (from 1585 onward), together with his relative Ventura Bacchi. He was also then the holder of a moneylender's concession at Bologna (from 1587 onward), at the Marchese Del Carreto fiefs in Calizzano and Carcare (1591–1611), and finally, from 1618 onward, at Cengio, which then belonged to another branch of the Del Carretto family.

The musical value and stylistic relationships of the Madrigali cannot be discerned from the surviving quinto part; neither has it been possible as yet to connect it definitely with the circle of Jewish musicians around Salamone de' *Rossi. The combination of the banker's profession with a musical education is typical of his time and social circumstances.

bibliography:

S. Foa, Gli ebrei nel Monferrato nei secoli xvi e xvii (1914, repr. 1967), 47 n. 62; 73 n. 17; 74 n. 18; 75 n. 19; 77 n. 20; E. Loevinsohn, in: rej, 93 (1932), 49, 159, 163, 168 (correct: David instead of Daniele Sacerdote di Rovere); A. Einstein, in: J. Newman, Madrigals of Salamon De Rossi (1962), 321 (Diss. Colum. Univ. n.y.).

[Vittore Colorni]