Vittorio Baldini

Who was Vittorio Baldini?

Vittorio Baldini was an Italian printer and engraver. He started publishing in Venice, where he was born, and later moved to Ferrara, joining the court of Duke Alfonso II d'Este in mid-to-late 1582, where he was the official ducal music printer. He may have met the duke through Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, whose translation and commentary on Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico Baldini printed in early 1582.

His first work as ducal music printer, and indeed his first print of music, was an anthology of madrigals, Il lauro secco, written by the most renowned composers of Rome and Northern Italy, as well as introducing important new composers, and was inspired by Laura Peverara. He later printed the anthology Il lauro verde, meant as a companion to Il lauro secco, and presented to Peverara on the occasion of her marriage in late February 1583.

Baldini published very little music for Alfonso between 1586 and 1594, and began publishing regularly again 1594-1596, when he printed anthologies containing madrigals by some of the most important madrigalists of the seconda pratica, including Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Carlo Gesualdo, and Alfonso Fontanelli, all of whom were part of the Este court at the time. These books, however, may have been funded by Gesualdo, who was at the court for his marriage to Leonora d'Este. During the period Baldini printed little for Alfonso; he did print a number of treatises on music and art, including those by Giovanni Battista Aleotti and Ercole Bottrigari. After Ferrara devolved to the papacy, Baldini published under the imprint of "Episcopal or State Printer and Printer to the Academy of the Intrepidi." During this period he printed descriptions and texts for various intermezzos and other theatrical entertainments.