Florentius de Faxolis
Italian priest and music theorist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Florentius de Faxolis, in Italian Fiorenzo de' Fasoli (c. 1461 – 18 March 1496), was an Italian priest and music theorist.[1]
Florentius entered the pay of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in 1481–1482, while the cardinal was living in Rome and Naples. His rise after this was rapid. In 1482, he obtained a canonry in the collegiate church of San Fiorenzo in Fiorenzuola d'Arda. In 1483, he was appointed chaplain of Santa Maria della Stella in Milan. In 1484, he received a papal dispensation allowing him to become a priest before the canonical age.[1]
At the cardinal's behest, Florentius wrote a treatise in Latin on music theory, the Liber musices (Book of Music), between 1485 and 1492.[2] It is preserved in a single manuscript—now in Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, 2146—illuminated by Attavante degli Attavanti or his atelier.[1][3] It contains 95 folios and is divided into three books. The only contemporary theorist cited by Florentius is Blasius Romero. The work closes with a poem by Francesco Tranchedino.[1]
Editions
- Book on Music, ed. Bonnie J. Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens (Harvard University Press, 2010).
- Un manuale di musica per Ascanio Sforza: il Liber Musices di Florentius (Ms. 2146 della Biblioteca Trivulziana di Milano), ed. Francesco Rocco Rossi (PhD diss., University of Pavia, 2007), vols. 1 and 2.