The Priego alla Beata Vergine and Marian Piety as Public Image: Antonio Migliori’s and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s Gift to Christine of Lorraine

Abstract

Giovanni’s Pierluigi da Palestrina’s cycle of spiritual madrigals, Delli madrigali spirituali a cinque voci, libro secondo, published in Rome in 1594, is the last of the composer’s collections to appear in print during his lifetime. The thirty texts set to music in this collection, taken as a whole, form a unified poem which models its rhetorical structure upon the Litany of Loreto, a popular Marian paraliturgical prayer. The present article sheds light on Antonio Migliori, the author of the poem, originally titled Priego alla Beata Vergine Maria in ottava rima composto, which remained unidentified as Palestrina’s textual source in the musicological literature until recently. The madrigal cycle was published only a few months after the poem, and both are dedicated to the same person: Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. In this article I argue for the association of both with a pilgrimage undertaken by Christine to the Marian shrine of Loreto in the autumn of 1593 and aim thereby to provide a richer historical contextualization of the two publications. In closely examining this specific case study of the patron-client relationships of early modern Europe, my discussion illuminates the ways in which religious piety as transmitted through text and music contributed to the shaping of public image.