US.$ 84.95 "Muti una volta quel suo antico stile / Ch'ogni uom attrista e me po far sì lieto." In setting this phrase from Petrarch's famous sestina Mia benigna fortuna (Rime, 332), sixteenth-century composer Luca Marenzio underscored the contradiction between the grief that death brings to all men, and the happiness that it might bring the poet, by juxtaposing slow moving, unusual vertical progressions and linear chromaticism with lively tunefulness and harmonic sweetness. This kind of word painting is an integral part of the sixteenth-century madrigal. To Marenzio, however, goes the distinction of a musical style that most artfully mirrors the contrast between piacevolezza and gravità so popular with sixteenth-century poets and composers. Marco Bizzarini's study of Marenzio is itself grounded in this idea of contrast, suggesting that such varietà characterises not only Marenzio's music, but also a "musical career suspended between the glittering worldliness of the late Renaissance and the more introspective spirit of the Counter Reformation" (p. ix).This book is a translation (revised and expanded) from the original Italian version published in 1998. Several book-length studies of Marenzio's music already exist and, perhaps for this reason, Bizzarini forgoes detailed musical analysis in favour of a close study of the web of personal and professional connections that influenced the course of Marenzio's career. Luca Marenzio (ca.1553 to 1599) was one of the more prolific composers of the sixteenth century, and his works had perhaps the greatest international circulation of any composer in that period. He was born in Coccaglio, near Brescia, but passed the greater part of his life in the service of various Roman prelates. The politics of Rome, with its complex network of local, national and international alliances, thus informs a major portion of this study.With a delicate touch, Bizzarini carefully analyses all existing evidence, as well as a few documents previously unknown to musicologists, and introduces the reader most vividly into the social and political milieu of Counter Reformation Rome. He teases out the relations between the various figures encountered in the dedications, letters, and court documents relating to Marenzio's service. Bizzarini weaves musical and political events together into a convincing narrative. For example, the correspondence concerning Marenzio's possible transfer to France brings to light the network of diplomatic and family relations that complicated Luigi d'Este's professional and personal life in the 1580s, related as he was to the rebellious Duke of Guise and yet devoted to serving the interests of the French crown in Rome on account of his relation to the late King Louis XII. Bizzarini

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Bergamo." Using the records from Bergamo's Misericordia Maggiore (MIA), the largest of Bergamo's six confraternities, Brolis finds a number of indicators that suggest women were more than peripheral to the confraternal movement and its survival. Founded in 1264, the MIA admitted over 1,000 women between 1265 and 1274, consisting of 58% of the total admissions. Not only were these women from diverse social classes, but also from rival families. The promised peace appealed to women as did the active role in charity. Taking on the question of valour, Brolis asserts that the high number of women at the confraternity's beginning indicates that the collaboration of women was necessary. Similarly, the rules of the confraternity were clear that men and women enjoyed the same spiritual fruits. As they did in the domestic sphere, some women held administrative roles in the MIA. They also contributed to the continued existence of the organization with their bequeathals. The archive has preserved testaments of some female members, again attesting to the female proclivity for donating to hospitals and other charitable groups. But more than just women, all members of the family appear to play a role, at least in the beginning of the confraternity. The matriculation register shows that a number of families entered en masse-grandparents, parents, children, and other relatives including in-laws, thus highlighting the importance of the family in shaping and providing the model for confraternities.

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