This interdisciplinary book investigates the use of secular space for music making in Early Modern France and Italy. The fact that many artists of the time also had musical skills underlines the close relationship between music and the visual arts. This era is remarkable for the growing importance of music in domestic life, ranging from elaborate court festivities to family recreation. In parallel with the emergence of the theatre as a separate building type, music-making in elite circles became more specialised through the employment of paid musicians, as opposed to amateur participation by...

How did religion colour daily life in the Italian Renaissance home? Peering into the privacy of family rites of passage - childbirth, marriage, and death - the authors expose patterns of piety that helped individuals to confront both the dangers and delights of everyday life, using such material objects as books, artworks, jewellery, and relics.