The Ruined Bridge is a collection of nine essays on the artistic and musical patronage of Pope Urban VIII Barberini (reigned 1623–44) and his family until the death of his last cardinal-nephew in 1679.  Drawing frequently on unpublished archival sources, this series of interlocking studies examines the magnificent events sponsored by this patronage and their effects on the family’s fortunes. While artistic projects in the early years of Urban’s rule had been approached as a means to achieve political and material advancement for the family, over time the motivation behind artistic endeavors shifted to the maintenance of the family’s high status, through the prominent use of symbols and images.

Analysis of the intersection of these with music and ceremony begins with scrutiny of the processions and services in 1631 for the induction of Don Taddeo Barberini as Prince Prefect of Rome, and continues with the Forty Hours devotions and the revised Landi opera Sant’ Alessio, mounted in 1633–34 among other entertainments, to mitigate the repercussions of the papacy’s condemnation of Galileo Galilei. Against the background of the family’s subsequent vicissitudes such as the unpopular War of Castro, the succession of Innocent X to the papal throne, and the exile to France of Urban’s three nephews, the discussion highlights the latters’ involvement in Cardinal Mazarin’s production of the Rossi–Buti L’Orfeo in Paris in 1647, their triumphant return to Rome, and the celebrations for the Holy Year at mid-century. Later chapters consider the Barberinis’ resurgence, and especially its reflection in the splendid spectacles of three operas and a joust, organized for the stay in Rome of the Catholic convert Queen Christina of Sweden in 1656. The family’s resplendent presence in the opulent joust is memorialized in the Lauri–Gagliardi painting reproduced on the cover of this volume.

Three other chapters of particular interest are dedicated to the creation and staging of chivalric combats in this period, including an examination of the unique surviving musical sources for such events.  The book’s last chapter examines the spectacular funeral celebrations for the principal members of the Barberini family. Seventy-one illustrations and a number of music examples enrich the text.

 

About the Author

Frederick Hammond, a distinguished scholar of Italian music of the seventeenth century, is Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Cultures and Music History at Bard College.  As well as being a professional harpsichordist, he is the author of many books and articles about music and musicians in Rome in the Baroque.

 
DMM/SM 56 / 324p / ISBN 0-89990-151-4 / Paperback /  2010 / $40.00

Table of Contents
   

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Reviews

"Hammond's writing performs a rarely-achieved feat: it is scholarly, yet accessible....An overarching theme of the work is the ways in which musical spectacles in seventeenth-century Rome served as symbolic and programmatic performances, as well as the ways in which such works, while often serving to celebrate a specific  event, are also allegorical.  Hammond outlines the chain of command from the person who initiated the work's conception to patron to composer to theatrical producer/director (the corago) down to the performers in order to give the reader an illustration of the process involved in creating a chivalric spectacle....Anyone interested in the relationship between the arts and culture will find much of interest in this study."

MLA Notes