Vorsterman 1529: Description

Thematic Index: see Ghelen 1554

(f. 1r) Livre plaisant et tres utile pour apprendre a faire & ordonner toutes tabulatures hors le discant, dont & par lesquelles lon peult facilement et legierement aprendre a jouer sur les Manicordion, Luc, et Flutes.

(f. K4) Imprime en Anvers par moy Guillaume Vorsterman de mourant en la rue de la chambre a la Licorne dor Lan de nostre Seigneur. M.CCCCC.  & xxIx Le douziesme jour Doctobre. Cum gratis et privilegio.

Most earlier scholars believed this to be a French translation of Virdung 1511. Bullard (see Bullard 1993) makes a strong case for considering this edition a translation of a no longer extant Netherlandic version, which now exists only in a later printing (Ghelen 1554). Thus Virdung's original German would have been translated into Netherlandic (i.e., early Flemish) and then into French for this edition. A more complete summary can be found under Ghelen 1554; here follows a few notes peculiar to the French translation.

The names of the courses ("tons") in French are as follows (from bass to treble): le plus gros teneur, le moyen teneur, le plus petit teneur, le plus gros chant, le plus petit chant (also le moyen chant) and la quinte corde (also le plus petit chant). The pagination, either in the original or in the facsimile (see bibliography) has been jumbled in the lute section. Sig. E is thus: Eii, Ei, Eiv, Eiii.

There is 1 extant copy of this treatise in E:S.

Bullard, Beth. "Musical Instruments in the Early Sixteenth Century: A Translation and Historical Study of Sebastian Virdung's Music getutscht (Basel, 1511)." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.

________. Musica getutscht: A Treatise on Musical Instruments (1511) by Sebastian Virdung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Thematic Index: see Ghelen 1554

Go back to List of Lute Tablatures

Go back to List of All Tablatures