Antonio Doni

Antonio Francesco Doni (* 1513 in Florence , † in July 1574 in Monselice ) was an Italian writer , editor and musician. His mannerist work belongs to the school of concettism. His notes on Italian musical life in the 16th century are of historical interest.

Life

Doni was born the son of a shearmaker. As a teenager he entered a monastery under the name Fra Valerio , but fled in 1540 via Genoa , Alessandria and Pavia to Milan , where he was the guest of the Marchese of Soncino . At his father's request, he took up law studies in 1543 ; but he was more concerned with the arts than with science. Doni founded the Accademia Ortolana in Milan , an academy of poets, painters and musicians, which, however, was closed at the instigation of the church because of publications that were considered offensive. In order to rehabilitate himself and to get a job with the Bishop of Piacenza , he wrote the music-theoretical Dialogo della musica within a short time , which he published in Venice in 1544 . However, the work was judged negatively by the critics.

After a stay in Rome , Doni returned to Florence for two years. His plan to obtain protection from Cosimo II. De 'Medici failed. He was now active as a publisher and set up a printing press with borrowed inventory, which was not destined to be commercially successful. In Venice , where he tried to gain a foothold after another trip to Rome, he committed extortion with literary diatribes following the example of Pietro Aretino ; Aretino viewed Doni as a competitor and eventually forced his expulsion. After stops in Ancona , Pesaro and Ferrara , Doni ended his life in Monselice near Padua as a poet and singer.

Work and effect

Doni's literary output includes an abundance of occasional works, each with a practical purpose. Although he was a music lover and instrumentalist and possibly composed as well, after completing his main writings he no longer pursued any deeper scientific interest. Dialogo is of great musical historical value as source texts ; Here you will find numerous comments on Italian music in the 16th century, on instrumental playing - especially on the practice of viola and organ - and on the musical life of his time. The Dialogo della musica was modeled on Giovanni Boccaccio's collection of novellas Il Decamerone (1350–53): the society gathers to sing four- and eight-part madrigals . On the first evening, works u. a. sung by Claudio Veggio , Vincenzo Ruffo , Giovanni Battista Riccio , Jakob Arcadelt and Girolamo Parabosco , on the second evening compositions by Perissone Cambio , Jacquet de Berchem , Adrian Willaert , Cyprian de Rore , Jakob Buus and other representatives of madrigal art. The vacillating and farce-like stories are only in the treble part , while the other parts only contain the musical text. La Libraria and La seconda Libraria (1550/51) are bibliographic works in which Doni gives an accurate description of the available Italian books and manuscripts on music. They also provide information about the academy as well as a historical outline of every academy that existed at that time. He also left an autobiography and numerous journalistic works.

Doni took little or no notice of the judgment of his contemporaries. His pamphlets, written against numerous public figures, made Nobel laureate Giosuè Carducci perceive him as a “disgrace to our [Italian] literature” ( “vergogna delle nostre lettere” ). Carl Friedrich Flögel's History of Comical Literature (1785) emphasized the satirical and mannerist elements of his work.

“If ever there was a strange writer, it was Doni. The epithet Bizarro , which he adopted in the Academy of Peregrini, expresses his character perfectly; for he was a man who chose very strange ways both in his poems and in his prosaic writings. His inventions and concetti were foolish and purring ideas, which he hoped to earn the curiosity and approval of his readers, who were then in love with such things. Among the multitude of burlesque phrases one finds none the less wonderful traces of his good head and the deep insight into the sciences, which are connected with the lively writing style and are everywhere interwoven with satirical ideas. "

- Carl Friedrich Flögel : History of the comic literature

Other fonts (selection)

• La zucca. Venice 1551.

literature

• Alfred Einstein : The "Dialogo della Musica" by Messer Francesco Doni 1544 . In: Music and Letters ML (1934), pp. 244-253
• Cecilia Ricottini Marsili-Libelli: Anton Francesco Doni. Scrittore e stampatore . Florence: Sansoni 1960
• Giuseppe Candela: Mannerismo e condizioni della scrittura in Anton Francesco Doni . New York / San Francisco / Bern a. a .: Lang 1993. ISBN 0-8204-2271-1
• Anna Comi: On the splendor and misery of man. Investigations into the worldview of Anton Francesco Doni . Tübingen: Stauffenburg 1998. ISBN 3-86057-080-3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carl Friedrich Flögel: History of the comic literature . Volume II, p. 184. Liegnitz / Leipzig: Verlag David Siegert 1785