One of Italy's most distinguished musicologists, F. Alberto Gallo here offers a fresh portrait of music in the Italian courts of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and early fifteenth centuries, a little-known but significant chapter in the history of medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Writing for general readers and specialists alike, Gallo illuminates the artistic, cultural, social, and political dimensions of secular music, vocal and instrumental. His account also sheds new light on the potent influence of French culture in Italian courtly life.

The book consists of three chapters. The first deals with the Provencal troubadours who journeyed across the Alps to create and perform in the courts of Monferrato, of the Malaspina family of Tuscany, the Este of Ferrara and Treviso, and the Scala of Verona. Presenting a wide range of music and texts, Gallo develops a detailed picture of the place of music in the life of each court.

Chapter two focuses on the now-dispersed library of the ruling Milanese family, the Visconti, at Pavia. Gallo uses the library as a frame within which to examine contacts between French and Italian artistic and intellectual traditions; the prominent role of music in the books and life of the era's aristocratic patrons is given the emphasis it richly deserves.

Chapter three is a virtuoso appreciation of the improvisatory style of solo singing to instrumental accompaniment that flourished in fifteenth-century courts, particularly those of Ferrara and Naples. Tapping newly rediscovered literary sources, Gallo deepens our understanding of the larger vision of music in courtly culture and in the humanist canons of the time.

Elegantly written, and enhanced with illustrations, music examples, and translations of Latin and Provencal texts, Music in the Castle is a major contribution to the history of medieval music and the study of its practices and repertories.