Sounding the Bookshelf 1501: Music in a Year of Italian Printed Books.

358 known editions were printed in Italy in the year 1501. Few contained notated music or specialist music theory; yet these books present a cornucopia of musical knowledge—as sounding art, social skill, metaphor, science, therapeutic practice, aspect of religious experience, in a programme of education, etc. These sources, largely ignored by musicologists, offer compelling witness to the contemporary understanding of music beyond the limited perspective of the professional musician.

The Sounding 1501 project team are reading through every one of the 358 editions cover-to-cover, excerpting anything relevant to music, sound, voice, or hearing. This team presentation will review some of our early findings.