than fragmentary mention of
musicians of whom we would gladly know more. Nevertheless there is
sufficient to demonstrate the interest of the marquises in the art and
the frequency with which musical entertainment was provided.

Toward the end of 1458 Germans became more numerous among the musicians
at Mantua, though they do not appear at any time to have held a
commanding position. This is quite natural since at that period German
musicians had no school of their own, but with the rest of the world
were followers of the Flemings. In 1458 Barbara of Brandenburg,
Marchioness of Mantua, took from Ferrara Marco and Giovanni Peccenini,
who were of German birth. Two years later the Marquis, wishing to engage
a master of singing for his son, sent to one Nicolo, the German, at
Ferrara, and this musician recommended Giovanni Brith as highly
qualified to sing in the latest fashion the best songs of the Venetian
style.

Ludovico, who has already been mentioned and who was the marquis from
1444 to 1478, had for two years at his court the celebrated Franchino
Gaffori. This master, born near Lodi in 1451, was the son of one Betino,
a soldier. The boy went into the church in childhood and studied
ecclesiastical music under a Carmelite monk named Johannis Godendach.
Later, he went to Mantua, where his father was in the service of the
Marquis. "Here for two years he closely applied himself day and night to
study, during which time he composed many tracts on the theory and
practice of music."[8] The period of Gaffori's greatest achievements in
theoretical work, especially his noted "Practica Musicae," from which
Hawkins quotes copiously, was later than his residence at Mantua, but
his studies at that court at least betoken the existence of a congenial
atmosphere, and we may be assured that such an enlightened amateur as
Ludovico did not neglect opportunities to acquaint himself with the
workings of this studious mind.

[Footnote 8: "A General History of the Science and Practice of
Music," by Sir John Hawkins. London, 1776.]

Bertolotti reproduces sundry interesting letters which passed between
the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and dealt with musical matters. Perhaps
an epistle from the Duke of Milan in January, 1473, might cause a
passing smile of amusement, for in it the Duke confides to the Mantuan
Marquis a project for the revival of music in Italy. It seems that he
was weary of the long reign of the Flemings, and was send