Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, born in Assisi likely around the mid-16th century, was a professional singer active in Rome, the Vatican, and Milan1. Despite his prominence, there is very little information about his life between 1592, when he was still employed at the Cathedral of Milan, and 1622, when he reappeared in Assisi. His activities are documented until 1627. Bovicelli performed both church music and non-religious music as a "virtuoso di camera", an exceptional musician employed in a court setting. Though he also composed, his known output was minimal, consisting of just two short vocal pieces. These compositions are found in his only surviving work, Regole, passage di musica, madrigali e motetti (1594).2
This book is an instructional guide written for anyone who considered themselves a ‘virtuoso’ and wanted to gain an exceptional technique in ornamentation1. Like many other instructional books written in the 16th century, such as those by Giovanni Bassano (1585) and Girolamo Dalla Casa (1584), this book provides numerous instructions and examples on how to create proper diminutions without disrupting the counterpoint. These diminutions were applied in both sacred and secular music. However, it seems there was more freedom in making diminutions in sacred settings. Virtuosi performing in vocal or instrumental ensembles often had a sensitive audience, who would not have tolerated extravagant embellishments. In this case, church authority was probably less strictly enforced.1
Regole, passaggi di musica is written for voice and contains instructions not only on how to place text properly but also, primarily, on how to create vocal ornamentations. This, however, doesn’t mean it isn’t of interest for instrumentalists. In fact, vocal music was open to any instrumentation or mixed performance.3 It was common practice to play and perform vocal music on any instrument. Cohan (2019) adds: “Instruments, including the recorder, were so closely related to the singing voice that they were considered able to take its place".4 There are many written examples of instructions of how to make the recorder sound like the human voice, the most famous being by Sylvestro Ganassi, who writes that it is the aim of the recorder player to imitate as closely as possible the capabilities of the human voice.5
Bovicelli’s Regole remains one of the most important late-Renaissance Italian treatises on vocal embellishment.1