The Musical Taste of Archbishop Ippolito I d’Este between Hungary and Italy

none1noSon of the famous Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, and also the younger brother of Isabella Gonzaga, Ippolito d’Este (1479-1520) lived a short and very intense life. His various duties connected with his precocious ecclesiastical career (having been appointed archbishop at the age of 8!) took him outside Italy: he was first Archbishop of Esztergom, and then Archbishop of Eger. Altogether Ippolito spent nearly a third of his life in Hungary, and he succeeded in creating an international personal empire thanks to his multiple, at times overlapping, positions. The extraordinarily rich Ippolito – appointed cardinal when he was just 14 years old – patronized music like his brothers and sisters, but he had a decided preference for the instrumental repertory. Almost ninety years ago Tiberio Gerevich wrote that «the premises of all his love for art and for his courtesy must be sought in Hungary, especially in the Esztergom environment. There Ippolito found a social milieu worthy of the leading European nations, headed by his uncle Mattias Corvinus» (from Corvina. Rivista di scienze, lettere ed arti della Società ungherese-italiana Mattia Corvino, I, 1921). This paper investigates Ippolito’s musical patronage, in order to understand if his predilection for instrumental music can be connected to his international experiences from a very young age. Is it possible that Ippolito preferred instrumental music – less connected to local languages, so more international – because of his uprooting from Italy during his childhood? And more generally, can we think of instrumental music as the best vehicle to form a “European” musical taste during the Renaissance?noneG. FilocamoG. Filocam