Antonius Romanus ( fl. 1400 – 1432) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

composer of the early 15th century, the early ''

quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

'', in which musical styles was in transition between the late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

era and early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. Few details are known about his life. Judging from his name, he may have been from Rome, and there are several records of his activity as a singer at St. Mark's in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

between 1420 and 1432. His music appears to have been strongly influenced by

Johannes Ciconia Johannes Ciconia ( – between 10 June and 13 July 1412) was an important Flemish composer and music theorist of trecento music during the late Medieval era. He was born in Liège, but worked most of his adult life in Italy, particularly i ...

, who died in 1412, and it also seems to have been an influence on the young

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397(?) – 27 November 1474) was a French composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and repr ...

, who was in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

during most of Antonius's later period of known activity. Six sacred compositions and one secular piece by Antonius have survived. The three

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

movements, two Glorias and a Credo, all for four voices, are influenced by Ciconia; the three

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s, also for four voices, are

isorhythm Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...

ic. All three can be approximately dated. The first, ''Ducalis sedes/Stirps Mocenigo'', can be dated to 1414 or 1415, since it is written in praise of

Tommaso Mocenigo Tommaso Mocenigo (1343–1423) was ''doge'' (chief magistrate) of the Republic of Venice from 1414 until his death. Biography He commanded the crusading fleet in the expedition to Nicopolis in 1396 and also won battles against the Genoes ...

, who was elected

doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...

in 1414. The second, ''Carminibus festos/O requies populi'', was written for the doge

Francesco Foscari Francesco Foscari (19 June 1373 – 1 November 1457) was the 65th Doge of the Republic of Venice from 1423 to 1457. His reign, the longest of all Doges in Venetian history, lasted 34 years, 6 months and 8 days, and coincided with the inception o ...

, who assumed the post in 1423. The last, ''Aurea flammigera'', he most likely wrote in praise of

Gianfrancesco Gonzaga Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga (1395 – 23 September 1444) was Marquess of Mantua from 1407 to 1444. He was also a condottiero. Biography Gianfrancesco was the son of Francesco I Gonzaga and Margherita Malatesta. He inherited the rule of Mantua ...

on his triumphant return from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1432. Antonius's single remaining secular composition is a

ballata The ''ballata'' (plural: ''ballate'') is an Italian poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musicapenim AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar to the Frenc ...

, ''Deh s'i t'amo con fede''; only one voice survives from this composition, and it is without text. The similarities of style of some of Antonius's music to Dufay's earliest works suggest that the two may have crossed paths, or at least known each other's works.

References and further reading

Albert Seay Albert Seay (9 November 1916 – 7 January 1984) was an American musicologist who specialized in medieval and Renaissance music and theory. His publications included critical editions of works by the composers Jacques Arcadelt and Carpentras, a ...

David Fallows David Fallows (born 20 December 1945) is an English musicologist specializing in music of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, as well as the performance practice of music. He is a leader in fifteenth-century music studies, particularly s ...

: "Antonius Romanus", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 15, 2006)
(subscription access)
*

, "Antonius Romanus", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. (Note: this article contains a works list absent in the online Grove article) *

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...

, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanus, Antonius Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Renaissance composers 15th-century Italian composers