Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro: 'De Pratica seu arte tripudii'; On the Practice or Art of Dancing.

McGinnis, Katherine Tucker

Court dance has been neglected by mainstream social historians, treated as an arcane subfield of early music. Even studies of court life and festivities often concentrate on settings and participants rather than action. Since participation in dancing is today no longer essential for the socially and politically powerful, it is difficult for modern scholars to grasp its importance to Renaissance courtiers for whom it functioned as the gendered embodiment of social and political codes as well as exercise, recreation, and entertainment.

The relative inaccessibility of primary sources has also inhibited scholarly attention. With the publication of Barbara Sparti's translation of Guglielmo Ebreo's De Pratica seu arte tripudii, an important document is widely available for the first time. Initially, it may appear to be a work for specialists in dance history and musicology. Certainly, these scholars will be grateful for the first translation of any treatise by the fifteenth-century dancing master whose patrons included Alessandro Sforza of Pesaro and Federico Montefeltro of Urbino. His treatises are critical to the study of Quattrocento Italian courtly dance. According to Sparti, the manuscript on which her translation is based (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds ital. 973) was the original source from which other redactions attributed to Guglielmo were copied.

As a translation, De pratica has many virtues. The English is rendered on pages facing the transcription which makes it easy for other scholars to evaluate Sparti's choices. For this reason, this edition will long retain its usefulness, both as literary text and as a basis for reconstruction. Students of early music will appreciate the reproductions of the original notation, along with Sparti's detailed notes. All the currently-known sources, both primary and secondary, are thoroughly and thoughtfully mined by Sparti. She has framed her translation with an extensive bibliographic and biographical introduction, "Notes on Transcription and Translation," identification of Guglielmo's patrons and noble students, a "Glossary of Dance, Music, and Humanistic Terms," and three appendices. De pratica is provided with an index and bibliography, but the notes can be scoured for additional sources. Sparti makes explicit the subjective decisions she has taken and provides both argument and evidence. Some reconstructors may debate specific glossary entries, but her approach is open-minded and carefully qualified. Over twenty years' experience as performer, teacher, choreographer, and reconstructor of fifteenth-century dances enhance her scholarship and give her a healthy respect for the various modern interpretations of the sketchy written records of an ephemeral art.

By contextualizing De pratica, Sparti has produced a book that should interest a wide range of scholars. Dance specialists will appreciate the social history; for the non-specialist, this publication will provide an excellent overview of fifteenth-century Italian court dance. In the brief format of her introductory chapter on "Dancing in Fifteenth-Century Italian Society," social historians will find a succinct introduction to this necessary skill. Her "Glossary" will be especially useful to scholars who are interested in dance as social practice, but cannot distinguish bassadanza from ballo. Although not an analytic social history, Sparti's translation may encourage attention to dance and the physical experience of the Renaissance.

Sparti's commentary raises important questions concerning the motives of the treatise-writers, the popularity and use of Guglielmo's treatise, and the contributions of Jews in the field of dance. Her translation should enhance debates concerning court life and festivities, patronage, courtesy manuals, the education of courtiers, the position of Jews, and the evolution of the artist as a "professional" within the court setting. Sparti has not only made an important primary source readily available, she has provided an up-to-date and succinct introduction to an essential skill of the Renaissance courtier.

Katherine Tucker McGinnis UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL