| Dances of the Chigi Manuscripts |
| In 2004, a "new" collection of dances from the Chigi manuscripts, now held in the Vatican libraries, were brought to light. Transcriptions of these dances, including a brief analysis, were published by Fabio Carboni, Barbara Sparti and Agostino Ziino, in Music Observed. These manuscripts contain 15 choreographies of 13 discrete dances - two entries being duplicates of the same dance, Torneo, and one entry being incomplete - which all seem to pre-date the dances of Il Ballarino. Variants of eleven* of those dances are also found in Il Ballarino, as well as other later works, and two dances are completely new. |
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| I am currently working on a more thorough examination of these dances, including a translation of the choreographies, the dances in an annotated format, steps explanations and music pulled from other contemporary sources, and an in-depth comparative analysis of each of the dances, to eventually be published in book format. In the meantime, I am making abbreviated reconstructions of these dances available here. |
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| *Based on my own analysis, I have found that one additional match: Bascia Marchese is a variation of Bassa Honorata in Il Ballarino. Information about this comparison is forthcoming. |
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| Updated January 2013 |
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