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Artemisia Editions » Catalogue » Convents » Re: Two canzoni (MR-03a)

This volume contains two instrumental works composed by Benedetto Re (Regio, Regius). Very little is known of Re’s origins: it is widely believed that he was born in Pavia, where he was employed as mæstro di cappella at the Duomo from 1606 to 1626. His published works include: Missarum sacrarum cantionum... Liber Primus (Milan, 1607); Integra psalmodia vespertina (Venice, 1611); and Sacrarum cantionum... (Venice, 1618). What little else we know about Re comes from his pupil, Caterina Assandra, a nun at the Benedictine convent of Sant’Agata in Lomello (about 40 kilometers outside of Pavia), and the first nun in 17th-century Lombardy to have published music.

Assandra evidently studied composition with Benedetto Re, whom she calls her "Mæstro di contraponto" on the title page of her op. 2. It would appear that the relationship between master and disciple was one of mutual respect for each of them included works by the other in his or her personal collection. Assandra’s book of motets contains two of Re’s works: a Litany for 6 voices, and the Canzon Francesa [sic!] à 4 included here. In turn, Re included compositions of hers in two of his own compilations, those of 1611 and 1618. The latter collection, Sacrarum cantionum, contains not only a work by Assandra but also two motets dedicated to other nuns. One of them, a certain Signora Suor Giovanna Battista Landriana, was undoubtedly a relative of Fabrizio Landriano, bishop of Pavia and dedicatee of both the collection and the Canzon à 4 detta La Landriana, the other work in this volume.