Congratulations are in order for Tony Cummings, professor of music and coordinator of Italian studies, as his book The Lion’s Ear: Pope Leo X, The Renaissance Papacy, and Music enters its third printing, this time in paperback.
The book paints a musical picture of life and times of Renaissance Pope Leo X, one of the greatest patrons of music in European history.
Richard Sherr, Caroline L. Wall ’27 Professor Emeritus of Music at Smith College, describes the book in this manner: “Drawing on a vast trove of documentary materials and alive to the latest theories of historians and art historians, Cummings’s book draws us into the sound world of Rome in the 16th century allowing us to imagine the music that followed Leo X wherever he went, in public festivals, in the Sistine Chapel, in the dining and concert rooms of the Vatican palace and elsewhere, in theatrical performances.”
The music that accompanies the book, performed by early-music performing ensemble La Morra, won two prestigious awards as well: The Noah Greenberg Award of the American Musicological Society and the Diapason d’Or by French audiophile magazine Diapason. The music is available to download or compact disc. Or take a listen!