introduzione

The studies included in this volume engage with the subject from different angles, and gather a surprising multitude of aspects that act on a variety of levels, but that converge in their factual scope. The presence of Franciscan composers is developed in multiple directions (from musical chapels to publication issues), feeding community activities that belong to the deepest and most authentic levels of Baroque civilization in the Po valley. In addition, the present proceedings scrutinize how the Franciscan composers’ works are often quite original and genuine contributions to the development of taste and style during the Baroque. In the rediscovery and further study of such contributions, inquiries that concentrate on a focused point of view regarding specific people, dynamics, milieus and practices (also of everyday life), and which have often been considered peripheral in traditional historiography, have proven essential. Such close readings, though also oriented towards the contextualization of the numerous (not a priori defined) criteria seems to aim at – using the language micro-history theorists – the redefinition of value hierarchies, and the emergence of unknown scenarios and new questions as a consequence.