Johannes [Juan] Scribanus [Scribano, Escribano]

Johannes [Juan] Scribanus [Scribano, Escribano] {Pius III-Paul III}

Salamanca; first reference, list of October 1503 ; expectative list of March 1506 ; mandati : April and September 1507 , June and October 1508 , February 1509 ; notarial document of September 1522 ; receipt lists of [ 1525 - 1526 ] and December 1526 ; supplication list of [ 1525 - 1526 ]; mandati : November 1531 -November 1533 , June-October 1539 ; unpublished beneficial documents : RS 1180, fol. 269r: supplication dated 25 March 1504 ; RV 897, fols. 169r-169v: bull dated 25 March 1504 ; RV 975, fols. 241v-245r: bull dated 28 October 1504 ; RV 975, fols. 248v-250r: bull dated 1 November 1504 ; RS 1198, fol. 22v: supplication dated 18 March 1505 ; RS 1193, fol. 138r: supplication dated 11 December 1505 ; RS 1193, fols. 138r-138v: supplication dated 11 December 1505 ; RS 1226, fol. 252r: supplication dated 9 January 1506 ; RS 1290, fols. 52v-53r: supplication dated 27 April 1508 ; RS 1322, fol. 289v: supplication dated 10 August 1509 ; RS 1372, fols. 251r-251v: supplication dated 7 November 1511 ; RS 1405, fol. 42r: supplication dated 1 December 1511 ; RS 1382, fol. 9v: supplication dated 1 March 1512 ; RS 1393, fol. 28r: supplication dated 24 August 1512 ; RS 1416, fol. 284v: supplication dated 5 July 1513 ; RS 1426, fols. 94r-94v: supplication dated 26 September 1513 ; LR 15, fol. 87r: entry dated 13 October 1513 ; RS 1442, fol. 242r: supplication dated 4 February 1514 ; See FREY for bulls dated 23 March 1515 ; 3 June 1516, 31 October 1521, and 12 December 1520 ; see LLORENS for bulls dated 5 July 1513, 23 March 1515, 5 July 1516, 1 November 1517, 3 November 1520, October 31 1521,11 July 1522, 1 December 1522, 19 December 1526, 3 November 1527, 10 July 1530, 25 Ocober 1532, 12 July 1532, 11 August 1533, 7 November 1533, 18 July 1539; had died outside of Rome (certainly in Spain) in October 1557 (on 19 November, the singers began distributing his benefices) and a funeral Mass was celebrated in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli on 12 October 1558; dean as of 1527.

According to LLORENS, in March 1534 the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso paid Scribano for Lamentations and for "the words of Christ in polyphony". The actual entry he publishes does not have a year, and Scribano’s absence from the mandati of 1534 suggests that he was not in Rome in that year (although I suppose the payment could have been made to him in any case). In June 1539, Scribano returned to the chapel and was reinstated as Dean, but he asked for another leave of absence only two months later. In September 1539, Bernardo Pisano (who had been designated as dean in Scribano’s absence) is once more referred to as the dean, so Scribano must have left Rome by then. Some of Scribano’s Lamentations are preserved in VatG XII.3. The "words of Christ" in the San Lorenzo in Damaso payment undoubtedly refer to the papal chapel tradition of singing the words of Christ in 3-part polyphony (see Chapter); Scribano’s setting may survive in Rome C 1671. The beginning of Scribano’s Lamentations was the cause of a dispute about accidentals between two singers of San Lorenzo in Damaso that Ghiselin Danckerts relates at great length in his manuscript treatise. As Danckerts became a papal singer in 1538 (during Scribano’s first absence from the choir) and implies that he had consulted Scribano himself about the mode of the piece in question, this would date his involvement in the dispute in 1539, the argument itself perhaps having occurred a year or two earlier.

WORKS IN VATS MSS

Magnificat sexti toni (VatS 44)

Motets: Paradisi porta (VatS 46)

DOCUMENTS

DS 1

100v: entry dated 12 June 1539 [CASIMIRI (1926), p. 189]

Eodem die rediit a patria R.dus d. Joannes Scribanus qui congregatis cantoribus petiit ab eisdem sibi dari locum suum ad quod consensierunt et ex nunc in antea pro decano habebitur.

107r: entry dated 24 August 1539 [CASIMIRI (1926), p. 258]

Finita missa congregatis cantoribus, R.dus dominus Jo. Scribanus petiit licentiam redeundi ad patriam attento quod prius habuit eam a pontifice et magistro capelle que etiam sibi data fuit a cantoribus postmodum petiit ut cantores procurarent ut sibi darentur salaria sex mensium proxima futurorum quamvis ne previderetur constitutionibus nostri, et habitis dictis salariis dixit se contentari quod salarium unius mensis sit pro collatione cantorum et super hoc respondebatur ispsi quod possibilitatem non dimitterent.

DS 5

78v: entry dated 19 November 1557 [CASIMIRI (1938), p. 44]

Eodem die fuerunt presentata beneficia quondam d. Joannis Scrivani per d. cantantores d. Francisco Montalvo et ipse dominus Franciscus fuit electus et nominatus a dominis cantoribus ut habeat ipsa beneficia in comenda de quibus d. Petrus Paulus Adtavante fuit rogatus in notario camere aspotolice.

117v: entry dated 12 October 1558 [CASIMIRI (1938), p. 204]

Fuerunt facte exequie in S.to Jacobo pro Annima Joannis Scrivano cantoris S.mi

BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 91; FREY (1955): 184, (1956): 152; LLORENS, Jose. "Juan Escribano, cantor pontificio y compositor (+1557)." Anuario Musical 41 (1957): 97-122, esp. 115-116; LOCKWOOD, Lewis "A Dispute on Accidentals in Sixteenth-Century Rome." Analecta Musicologica 2 (1965): 24-40; SHERR, Richard. "The ‘Spanish nation’ in the papal chapel 1492-1521." Early Music 20 (1992): 601-609.