Mutio Effrem e la corte del Principe di Venosa a Gesualdo

The splendour of the parthenopean court of the Prince of Venosa found its home – after the well known bloody events in Naples during the night between the 16^th and 17^th October 1590 – in the castle of the Gesualdo estate.

Above all, however, in the estate of the same name – described by Fontanelli as […] a village as pleasant and graceful to the eye as one could wish for, with a truly agreeable and healthy air […] – appreciation of works of art and places of worship thrived alongside the splendour of the court, favoured by the presence of Eleonora d’Este.

This study aims to investigate the activity at the Irpinian court of the Prince of Venosa of a host of musicians, as described by Scipione Cerreto in his essay Della prattica musica vocale, et strumentale in 1601.

A list of musicians – active in Naples between the end of the 16^th and the beginning of the 17^th centuries which includes the name of a musician of oriental origins, the little known personality of Mutio Effrem, who was born in Bari on 4^th November 1549 and died in Naples sometime after 1640. Some less well known elements of his biography can be described in more detail thanks to the discovery of some unedited documents from that era which contribute to much clearer definition of his professional relationships and his rapport with Giovanni Battista de Paola, Pomponio Nenna and, in particular, with Carlo Gesualdo. Finally, an analysis of his correspondence also contruibutes to the definition of the role of Eleonora d’Este, and in particular the correspondence from Gesualdo, together with the coeval iconographic Gesualdian sources. They offer further witness to commitment in favour of musicians and active participation in events connected to the life of the court of Gesualdo.