Sounding Marvels: Musical Instruments between Reality and Imagination in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Italy

16和17世纪被定义为“奇妙的时代”，因为人们对奇迹的审美有着非凡的兴趣，这种兴趣出现在文学、具象艺术、手工艺品和音乐中（Kenseth，1991）。古希腊和罗马神话的人文复兴，宗教信仰中的奇迹，好奇的橱柜，以及对未知土地的旅行的令人惊讶的报道，只是奇迹美学如何嵌入文化背景的例子。奇妙被认为是知识的一个范畴，用勒内·笛卡尔的话说，是“所有激情中的第一个”。在这种文化环境中，乐器在奇妙的物品中找到了自己的位置，不仅被认为是产生声音的工具，而且也是令人惊叹和视觉满足的物品。“声音奇迹”包括收藏家想要的和音乐家演奏的物理非凡的物体，以及由艺术家的铅笔设计或由表演者的想象力包装的想象发明。本论文研究的是不同种类的奇妙乐器：首先是那些装饰精美的乐器，有时是用特殊或珍贵的材料制成的;其次是在宫廷演出中演奏的戏剧乐器，包括在音乐间奏中伪装的乐器和喜剧演员演奏的幻想乐器;最后，神话和神圣的生物或来自外国的音乐家手中描绘的想象发声物体。所有这些乐器都需要在当时的审美趣味与它们的声学和实用功能之间找到平衡，这可能会导致它们的令人惊讶的成分完全或部分受损。本研究将奇妙的乐器现象确定为介于现实和想象之间的复杂的声音和符号对象，并旨在解释和批判性地评估他们的文化和审美影响的时代的奇迹和奇妙的对象。本研究探讨了这些乐器的创作过程和流通-包括实物和它们的表现-并推测它们的功能和象征意义。通过在当时的文化背景下对其进行评估，并与其他历史文物进行比较，可以重新评估这类乐器或其在博物馆收藏中的价值。作为文艺复兴后期意大利的一种文化现象，声音奇迹的复杂性需要多学科的研究方法。乐器与其他种类的物品共享其材料、技术和装饰。为了理解文艺复兴后期奇妙乐器的文化和美学影响，它们被定位在其他艺术品和奇迹物品的生产和流通中。由于物质文化领域的发展，这种方法反映了乐器研究的创新和新兴视角。这种多学科的方法需要各种类型的主要来源：文学文献，图像和物理对象进行分析，分类和比较。文艺复兴时期关于奇迹概念的大量文献证明了奇迹物品在那个社会中的相关性。然而，还没有研究涉及乐器在这方面发挥的作用和意义。这项研究是第一个批判性地考虑奇妙乐器现象的研究，将丰富和扩展文艺复兴后期意大利奇迹文化中奇妙物体的概念。

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been defined as the 'age of marvellous' for the extraordinary interest in the aesthetic of wonder, which emerged in literature, figurative arts, artefacts, and music (Kenseth, 1991). The humanistic revival of the ancient Greek and Roman mythology, miracles in religious beliefs, cabinets of curiosities, and surprising reports from travels towards unknown lands are just examples of how the aesthetic of marvel was embedded in the cultural context. The marvellous was considered a category of knowledge and, in René Descartes's words, 'the first of all the passions'. Within this cultural environment, musical instruments found their place among marvellous objects and were considered not only tools to produce sounds, but also objects of wonder and visual fulfilment. 'Sounding marvels' include physical extraordinary objects desired by collectors and played by musicians, as well as imaginary inventions designed by an artist's pencil or crated by a performer's imagination. This dissertation looks at different kinds of marvellous musical instruments: first of all, those beautifully decorated instruments, sometimes made of unusual and/or precious materials; secondly, theatrical musical instruments that were played at court performances, including disguised ones during musical intermedi and fantastical ones played by comedians; finally, imaginary sounding objects depicted in the hands of mythological and divine creatures, or musicians coming from foreign lands. All these musical instruments needed to find a balance between the aesthetic taste of the time and their acoustic and practical functions, which might result completely or partially impaired in favour of their surprising components.This research identifies the phenomenon of marvellous musical instruments as complex sounding and symbolic objects between reality and imagination, and aims to interpret and critically assess their cultural and aesthetic impact within the broader context of the age of marvel and marvellous objects. This study explores the creative process and circulation of such instruments - both physical objects and their representations - and speculate on their functionality and symbolism. Through their evaluation within the cultural context of the time and the comparison with other historical objects of marvel, it will be possible to revaluate this kind of musical instruments or their depictions in museum collections. The complexity of sounding marvels as a cultural phenomenon in late Renaissance Italy requires a multidisciplinary approach to the research. Musical instruments share their materials, technologies and ornaments with other kind of objects. To understand the cultural and aesthetical impact of marvellous musical instruments in late Renaissance, they are positioned inside the production and circulation of other artefacts and objects of marvel. This approach reflects the innovative and emerging perspective of musical instrument studies, thanks to the development of the field of material culture. This multidisciplinary approach demands a variety of type of primary sources: literary documents, iconographies and physical objects are analysed, categorised and compared. The vast corpus of literature about the concept of marvel during the Renaissance proves the relevance of marvellous objects within that society. However, no research has yet addressed the role and significance that musical instruments played in this context. This study is the first one of its kind that critically considers the phenomenon of marvellous musical instruments and will enrich and expand the notion of wondrous objects within the late Renaissance Italian culture of marvel.