Dominicus [Domenico Maria]  Ferrabosco {Julius III-Pius V}

Bologna ( born  14 February  1513 ); employed by the Signoria of Bologna ( 1540 - 1546) ; magister puerorum  in the Cappella Giulia (February  1546 -February  1548 ); maestro di canto at San Petronio (1548-1550); admitted on 27 November  1550 (according to the list in DS 6, fol. 24v), apparently to replace Pedro Ordòñez who had just died;  mandati : December  1550 -August  1555 (but see mandati 890, fol. 136v for a special payment for November 1550) ; on 30 July  1555 , Ferrabosco (along with Bonot/Barre and Palestrina) was excluded from the choir because of his married state (see Bonot/Barre); the three singers were granted monthly pensions of 5 ducats 87 bolognini and remained in the  mandati  lists in a special category eventually labeled "coniugatis;" Ferrabosco is listed there from September  1555 -October  1571; had returned to Bologna by 23 December 1573 when he made his will; died  in February  1574  in Bologna; on 4 March  1574 , a funeral Mass was celebrated in San Luigi dei Francesi for his soul (and for the souls of the singers Giovanni Antonio Latino  and Firmin le Bel ); he fathered eight children, the eldest being Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder ( 1543 -88).

In the reign of Julius III, Ferrabosco seems also to have been involved in providing private musical entertainment for the pope; he and his children are mentioned periodically in payments of the  Tesoreria Segreta  for  1551 - 1555, and the pope also provided rent for his house in  1553 . He was also a composer; his first (and only) book of madrigals was published in  1542  and other madrigals and motets exist in manuscript and printed sources (see CHARTERIS for an edition).

 

Works in VatS Manuscripts

Ascendens Christus (VatS 54); Viri Galilei (VatS 54).

EDITION: CHARTERIS, Richard, ed. Domenica Maria Ferrabosco, Opera Omnia. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 102 (Neuhausen, 1992)

DOCUMENTS

DS 10

53v: entry dated 4 March 1574 [FREY, p. 137]

Fuit missa defunctorum in ecclesia S.ti Ludovici pro animabus Jo. Antonius Latinus et Flaminius et Feraboscus presente R.do magistro cappellae. Participantes 19.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 103; CASIIMIRI; FREY, Die Diarien, pp. 136-137; GASPARI, Gaetano. Musica e Musicisti a Bologna (Bologna, rprt. 1969), pp. 149-157; DE GRANDIS, Lucio. "Famiglie di Musicisti nel ‘500: I Ferrabosco: Da Bologna alla Corte di Londra," Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana 14 (1980): 539-554; GAMBASSI, Osvaldo. La Cappella Musicale di S. Petronio: Maestri, Organisti, Cantori e Strumentisti dal 1436 al 1920. Historiae Musicae Cultores Biblioteca XLIV (Florence, 1987), pp. 71-72