Cesar [Cesare] Belluccio {Gregory XIII-Innocent IX}
Bass; Camerino; in the employ of the Duke of Mantua, 1572; admitted 31 October 1581 at the same time as Giovanni Battista Martini ; mandati : December 1581 -November 1586 (see mandati 931, fol. 80v : special payment for his salary for November 1581) ; DS lists of 1587-1590 ; died in Rome on 19 December 1591 ; punctator in 1590 .
Belluccio seems to have been a difficult person; in 1572, the Duke of Urbino wrote a letter of recommendation to Belluccio’s then employer the Duke of Mantua; presumably, this would have not been necessary if he were not in trouble in Mantua. On several occasions in 1583, in Rome, he either refused to sing or sang when he was not supposed to. During Holy Week of that year, he was so annoyed that his assignment to sing a Lamentation had been changed that he actually inserted blasphemous words into the reading he delivered on 6 April. His refusal to sing in the Gloria on 11 November was the cause of "much dissonance".
DOCUMENTS
Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Gonzaga, busta 1075
Letter from the Duke of Urbino to the Duke of Mantua dated 5 May 1572
Essendo capitato qui il presente Cesare Belluci da Camerino quale ho inteso che serve l’Ecc.a V. per musico, non ho potuto mancare per essere egli di quella città tanto mia amorevole di raccommandarlo a V. Ecc. per questa mia, e pregarla apresso oltre quel che fa per se stessa volere verderlo volentieri per amor mio e fare verso lui di quelle buone divotione che è solito della molta cortesia sua che tutto sarò per sentir con molto piacere.
Di Pesaro V di Maggio LXXII
Mandati 931, fol. 80v: entry dated 2 November 1581
Simile modo solvas etc. dd. Jo. Baptiste Martini de Anversia et Cesari Belluccio Camerinensis duobus ex D.mi D. N. Papae cantoribus nuper et in fine mensis octobris proxime preteriti a S. S.te constitutis et deputatis prout per fidem R. D. Antonii Buccapadulii eiusem S.mi D. N. Papae magistri capelle hodie factam et in actis infrascripti nostri et camere apostolice notii dimissam nobis constat, et pro eis D. Christiano Ameyden eiusdem capella cantori, scuta decem et octo monete et bol. octuagintaquinque, hoc modo distribuendi, videlicet scuta novem similia et bo. quadraginta duos cum dimidio unicuique ipsorum pro eorum et cuiuslibet eorum unius mensis in fine dicti mensis octobris incepti ut sequitur finiendi orginaria provisione.
DS 12
12v: entry dated 6 April 1583
Nihil aliud ntandum inveni nisi quod D. Caesar Bellucius videns quod mutata sibi fuit lamentacio in prima die probata indignatus dixit mihi canere non possum, et sic multis loqutus fuit, unde ad lectionem suam veniens, canendo dixit diabolus angeli et spiritus sanctus ad ignem eternum sunt destinati unde et propter blasfemiam
19r: entry dated 30 May 1583
Ad Benedictus D. Caesar Bellucius incepit canere quia D. Marinus Luppus ei precepit, D. Jo. Bap.ta Martinus eciam ipse cantabit, quia D. Paulus de Magistris cane ei dixit, adeo quod ambo derelinquere nec cedere alter alteri voluerunt, D. Caesar Bellucius ordinem capelle nesiebat, sed D. Jo. Bap.ta Martinus dolose egit, ut D. Marinus rettuliy quia multocies precepit ut caneret et nunquam canere voluit, hodie quia D. Marinus dixit D. Cesari cani, ipse cantare voluit, unde post benedictus multa verba inter eos habuerunt propter hoc.
35v: entry dated 1 November 1583
Et quia D. Caesar Bellucius in Gloria in excelsis que cantare oportebat non cantabat, et propter disonantiam causa magne subversionis fuit, et D. Vinc.s Zambonus ad per omnia secula seculorum Agnus dei cantare incepit, unde propter inadvertentiam.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 759 [incorrectly gives date of entry as 1582]; SHERR, Richard. "Performance Practice in the Papal Chapel in the 16th Century." Early Music 15 (1987): 453-62.