YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

SELLING THE MADRIGAL: PIERRE PHALÈSE II AND THE FOUR ‘ANTWERP ANTHOLOGIES’
works were issued in Munich, Nuremberg, Antwerp, Paris, Louvain, Rome, Milan,
and Venice, far exceeding the publications of any other sixteenth-century composer. 10
Clearly, Phalèse attempted to expand his niche by slowly introducing the
madrigal, with its foreign text, into the pre-established market for his editions. Musica
divina was a signal publication for Phalèse as his first anthology devoted exclusively
to Italian madrigals. Yet, once again, Phalèse remains cautious by diminishing the
term ‘madrigal’ on the title page: it only appears in small font in the sixth line of the
text. Instead, Phalèse favoured the appealing metaphor of ‘divine music’ for the
anthology’s title. 11 This is a significant marketing maneuver: while the name of a
famous composer was usually used to promote volumes devoted to single authors, in
the case of anthologies, the title (and title page) was the primary point of reference
for booksellers, publishing catalogues, and consumers. The typographical layout is
also suggestive. All four of the ‘Antwerp anthologies’ lack a printer’s mark and are
framed with the same scrolled border in use since the publication of Septiesme livre
des chansons a quatre by Phalèse the Elder in 1567. 12 Phalèse fils may have retained
the cover design to attract customers already familiar with his firm’s chanson books
(see Figure 2).
Though Phalèse compiled Musica divina himself, he employed outside editors
for the remaining ‘Antwerp anthologies’. Managing the print shop would certainly
have occupied his time, and may have prevented him from taking on the additional
task of compiling new anthologies. He probably relied on his compilers Andreas
Pevernage (1542/43–1591), Hubert Waelrant (c.1517–1595), and Peter Philips (1560/
61–1628) for access to Italian music as well. Pevernage, the compiler of Harmonia
celeste (1583), for instance, had close ties to the Officina Plantiniana, the Antwerp-
10 His music survives in over 280 single-composer editions and another 250 anthologies – see BERN-
STEIN, Music Printing in Renaissance Venice, p. 204, drawing figures from J. ERB, Orlande de Lassus:
A Guide to Research, New York, 1990, p. xvi.
11 For a history of title pages, see M. SMITH, The Title-Page: Its Early Development, 1460–1510, London,
2000; and B. RICHARDSON, Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy, Cambridge – New
York, 1999, pp. 131–135. The importance of illustration and decoration in the northern book world is
stressed in K. BOWEN, Christophel Plantin’s Books of Hours: Illustration and Production,
Nieuwkoop, 1997. The title page styles of the Venetian firms of Scotto and Gardano are examined in
BERNSTEIN, Music Printing in Renaissance Venice, pp. 70–79, 199 and nn. 47–49; and M. LEWIS,
Antonio Gardano, Venetian Music Printer, 1, pp. 31–32, 43–48, and 2, pp. 39–40 and n. 65. See also
PIPERNO, Gli ‘Eccellentissimi musici della città di Bologna’, pp. 8–9, 11–12, 30; and PIPERNO,
Madrigali siciliani, pp. xvi–xvii.
12 The title pages to Paradiso musicale (1596), Il vago alboreto (1597), and Madrigali a otto voci (1597,
1598) were printed without the scroll border. The title page designs and printer’s marks used by Phalèse
the Elder in Louvain are discussed in VANHULST, Catalogue des éditions de musique publiées à
Louvain, pp. xv–xviii, 199. The scroll design was also used by his contemporaries, Joannes I Bogardus
and his son and successor Jean II Bogard, in Douai. See G. PERSOONS, Joannes I Bogardus, Jean II
Bogard en Pierre Bogard als muziekdrukkers te Douai van 1574 tot 1633 en hun betrekkingen met de
Officina Plantiniana, in De Gulden Passer, 66–67 (1988–1989), pp. 613–667, especially pp. 638–641
and 660–663.
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