Constantius [Costanzo] Festa {Leo X-Paul III}
Tenor; Torino; earliest reference, bull of 1 November 1517; receipt lists of December 1526 and [1525 - 1526]; supplication list of [1525 - 1526]; mandati : July-September 1529 , April 1530 -May 1545 ; payments in the tesoreria secreta as the head of the musici segreti, 1541-1544; unpublished beneficial documents : RAS, Camerale I, 1109, fols. 14v-15v: bull dated 1 May 1525 , RV 1283, fols. 81v-84v: bull dated 4 January 1526 , RL 1496, fols. 324v-326r: bull dated 26 June 1527 , RV 1496, fols.: Bull dated 10 July 1527 , RV 1380, fols. 64r-66r: bull dated 25 July 1531 ; see FREY for bulls dated 1 November 1517 and 22 December 1519 ; died in Rome on 10 April 1545 and was buried in the Santa Maria in Traspontina; a funeral Mass was celebrated in that church on 17 April.
The exact date of Festa's entry into the papal chapel has been a matter of controversy. LOWINSKY, who posited that Festa was in France in 1518 , was unwilling to accept the 1 November 1517 date given in FREY and supported by CRAWFORD. And, in fact, for reasons totally unconnected to Lowinsky's, that date can be questioned (see SHERR ). However, the list of singers in DS 2, fol. 94v, which gives the date of entry for each, has " 1517 " after Festa's name and in various chapel lists Festa is always placed ahead of Felicis who entered in 1518 (see Felicis), so he must have joined the chapel by 1518 at the latest.
Festa’s compositional career need not be discussed here (see TNG and MAIN and SEAY for an edition of his works).
EDITION: MAIN, Alexander and SEAY, Albert. Opera Omnia Costanzo Festa. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 25 (American Institute of Musicology, 1962-1979)
DOCUMENTS
DS 2
75r: entry dated 10 April 1545 [CASIMIRI (1933), p. 269]
Eadem die Constantius Festa musicus eccellentissimus et cantor egregius vita functus est, et sepultus in Ecclesia Traspontina, cuius funeri R. D. Episcopus Assisii magister capellae cum cantoribus omnibus interfuit et sacrista. 17 d. iterum fuit ad Transpontinam et ibi solemniter celbratae sunt exequiae domini Conatantii Festa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 92; CASIMIRI ; FREY (1955): 64-66 ; LOWINSKY, Edward. "The Medici Codex, A Document of Music, Art, and Politics in the Renaissance." Annales musicologiques 5 (1957): 61-178; LOWINSKY, Edward. The Medici Codex of 1518 . A Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino . 3 vols. Monuments of Renaissance Music, 3-5 (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1968); CRAWFORD, David. "A Review of Costanzo Festa's Biography." Journal of the American Musicological Society 28 (1975): 102-11; LOWINSKY, Edward. "On the Presentation and Interpretation of Evidence: Another Review of Costanzo Festa's Biography." JAMS 30 (1977): 106-28; SHERR, Richard. "Notes on Some Papal Documents in Paris." Studi Musicali 12 (1983): 5-16; AGEE, Richard J. "Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal." JAMS 38 (1985): 227-37; LLORENS, Jose. "Cantores pontificios colegas de Cristóbal de Morales." Inter-American Music Review , 10 (1989): 3-18; MCFARLAND, Alison Sanders. "Papal Singers, The Musica Segreta, and a Woman Musician at the Papal Court: the View from the Private Treasury of Paul III." Studi Musicali 24 (1995): 209-230; for further bibliography, see TNG .