There are three fifteenth century Italian dance masters from whom we have surviving manuscripts. These are Domenico, Cornazano, and Ebreo. Domenico was the first of the three, and both Ebreo and Cornazano were his students (many of the dances appearing in both Ebreo’s and Cornazano’s books were originally choreographed by Domenico, for example).
They divided their dances into two categories: Bassadanze and Balli. The distinctive feature of a bassadanza was that it should not involve any leaps or jumps (the literal translation of “bassadanza” is “low dance” -- meaning where the dancers stay low to the ground and do not leap into the air). Certainly the basse danze are less complex and by and large do not contain as many leaps and bounds as the balli, but there is only a very fine dividing line between the balli and the basse danze.
Before I begin with any of the dance choreographies, I will list the step descriptions for these dances, and some notes about dancing in the 15th century style.
The basic step descriptions will get you through the early dances -- La Spagna and Reale, which are basic bassedanze. Feel free to read just this first section and then skip onwards to the dancing. Later, you will want to come back and read more of the step descriptions and learn more of the complex dances, then read up on tempi, misura, and maniera, which are also described here.
This book lists only a handful of 15th C dances, and there are many more dances that can be done in an SCA setting that are not listed in this book.
Recently, all of these manuscripts have been translated into English (see the bibliography at the end of the book, in particular Sparti’s translation of Ebreo and A. William Smith’s 2 volume book), and it is an interesting exercise to reconstruct these dances from the translations (or transcriptions, if you read Italian) of the manuscripts -- this is more complex than reconstructing from Arbeau, but less complex than reconstructing from Caroso or Negri.
After you have learned a few of these dances, please feel free to start reconstructing these dances from the original sources. You are likely to learn a lot more about dancing doing that than in any other way. The 15th century manuscripts generally present much simpler dances than the 16th century books. They are relatively easy to reconstruct and easy to dance, while providing you as a dancer and a researcher with more challenging work than you will find in working through Arbeau or the Inns of Court.
There are several of these dances that have never or very rarely been reconstructed (because the transcriptions and translations have only recently been made available), and so it is useful work too!
Handouts:
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15th C Italian Dance, PDF format |
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Teaching Notes for 15th C Italian Dance, PDF format |
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Student Handouts for 15th C Italian Dance, PDF format |
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Cheat Sheet: 15th C Italian Dance, PDF format |
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15th C Italian Dance Steps, PDF format |
Videos:
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Two Sempi (Singles) |
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Doppio (Double). |
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Ripresa backwards. |
Handouts:
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La Spagna, PDF format |
Music:
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Amours, from the Namor Archives, arranged by Russell Almond. This is an 18 bar basse danse which can be used as music for either La Spagna or Reale. |
Handouts:
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Reale, PDF format |
Music:
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Amours, from the Namor Archives, arranged by Russell Almond. This is an 18 bar basse danse which can be used as music for either La Spagna or Reale. |
Handouts:
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Four Italian Bassedanze -- Corona, Pietosa, Caterva, Patienza, PDF format |
Videos:
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Two Pive (piva steps) |
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Saltarello |
Handouts:
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Petit Vriens, PDF format |
Music:
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Petit Vriens (Giovanni Ambrosio), arranged by Monica Cellio |
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Petit Vriens (Guglielmo Ebreo), single line transcribed by Russell Almond |
Handouts:
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Amoroso, PDF format |
Music:
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Amoroso (Giovanni Ambrosio), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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Anello, PDF format |
Music:
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Anello (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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Gelosia, PDF format |
Music:
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Gelosia (Domenico), arranged by Russell Almond. I have moved the repeat marker one bar forwards in section II. If you want to dance section II as 8 bars as per some reconstructions, move the repeat marker back to the fourth bar of section II. |
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Gelosia (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio. |
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Gelosia (Domenico), arranged by David Yardley. |
Handouts:
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Rostiboli Gioioso, PDF format |
Music:
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Rostiboli Gioioso (Guglielmo Ebreo), arranged by Monica Cellio. Note that I have adjusted this for my reconstruction of the dance a bit, mostly in moving the last part into 4/4 time from 6/8. |
Handouts:
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Pizochara, PDF format |
Music:
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Pizochara (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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L'altria Fia Guielmina, PDF format |
Music:
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La Fia Guielmina (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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Prexonera, PDF format |
Music:
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Prexonera (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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Voltati in Ça Rosina, PDF format |
Music:
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Voltati in Ça Rosina (Guglielmo Ebreo), arranged by Monica Cellio |
Handouts:
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Sobria, PDF format |
Music:
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Sobria (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio, adjusted to fit this reconstruction of the dance. |
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Sobria (Domenico), arranged by Monica Cellio (original arrangement). |