- Giovanni Battista Doni
Giovanni Battista Doni (c. 1593 - 1647) was an Italian
musicologist who made an extensive study ofancient music .Life
Born in
Florence , he studied Greek,rhetoric ,poetry andphilosophy at the Universities of Bologna and Rome. He received the degree of "doctor" from theUniversity of Pisa and was chosen to accompany Cardinal Neri Corsini toParis in 1621 where he became acquainted withMarin Mersenne and other literary persons.On returning to Florence in 1622, he entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and went with him to
Rome where Barberini becameDean of the College of Cardinals , afterwards accompanying the cardinal to Paris,Madrid , and back toRome . Doni made good use of the opportunities that came his way on those journeys, to acquire exhaustive knowledge of ancient music. Among other things, he invented, or reconstructed, a "doublelyre " which, in honour of his patron, he called a "Lyra Barberina" or "Amphichord" (see "barbiton ").After the death of his brother, he returned to Florence around 1640, where he married and settled down as professor at the university.
Works
* "Compendia del trattato de' generi et de' modi della musica" (1635)
* "Annotazioni sopra il compendio" (1640)
* "De praestantia musicae veteris" (1647)
* A description of the "Lyra Barberin" was published in 1763.Bibliography
* Maitland, J.A.F. (1922) "Doni, Giovanni Battista", "
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians "
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.