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Maximilian in Innsbruck

Helen Coffey

After two months awaiting Maximilian’s departure from Vienna, on 9 March 1494, Bianca Maria travelled with Sigmund and Katharina by boat on the River Inn to the nearby town of Hall, where, that same evening, she met Maximilian for the first time. Maximilian and his wife remained in Hall for a number of days, participating in games and dances. On 12 March, the wedding party, including a number of German and Italian nobleman, arrived in Innsbruck for what would be the culmination of the wedding festivities: a Mass performed in Innsbruck’s church on 16 March. It is the Ferrarese ambassador who again provides important information about the church service. In his letter dated 18 March 1494, the Ferrarese envoy Pandolfo Collenuccio wrote to Duke Ercole d’Este of the events of the previous days, noting:

“Per Poi la Copulatione de la Mta. Del Ré: Fatta Domenica. 9. del p[resen]te: la nocte seguente […] con la Regina In Halla: [… ] Giugó el di qualche poco a charte con la Regina. E similmente la sera se ballò a la domestica. […] Mercord. 12. Sua Mta. con la Regina se ne Vennero qui in Inspruch.” [42]
(For the wedding of his Majesty the King on Sunday 9 of this month: the following night [after arriving] in Hall he played cards for a while with the Queen. Likewise, in the evening they danced in the native fashion […] Wednesday 12 his Majesty with the Queen came here to Innsbruck.)

Collenuccio then goes on to describe the procession to St Jacob’s of lords and barons, as well as envoys from Montferrat, Ferrara and Venice. The Queen, wearing a crown, was led by Duke Albrecht of Saxony and Margrave Christoph of Baden while Archduke Sigmund was carried in a sedan chair. His wife Katharina was described as being covered in pearls “from head to toe” (“da capo a piede”). Yet, it is the second page of Collenuccio’s letter that provides important information about the music performed in the church (see » Abb. Letter from Pandolfo Collenuccio)­­

At the top of this page Collenuccio writes:

Da Mano sinistra, Riccardo de Inghilterra figliolo che fù del Ré Heduardo Giovene de 18 anni honorato dal Ré: Li oratori Venetiani: Noi de V. S. Poi q[ue]lli de Monferrato:
In mezzo: La Regina Coronata, con la Duchessa in paio:
Cantó la Messa El Cardinal Gurzense Servito da quatro Vescovi: e dui de loro mitrati: Diede la pace al Ré e alla Regina soli El Vescovo de Brixna Consigliero e de li primarij de qui:
Uno organo bono e ben sonato: Optimi Cantori e con epsi insieme sonuano hora Tromboni. Et hora Cornetti: è certo bona harmonia:

(On the left-hand side, Richard of England, son of King Edward,[43] a youth of 18 years old honoured by the King; the Venetian envoys; we of Your Lordship, then those of Montferrat. In the middle, the queen, wearing a crown, paired with the duchess.
The Cardinal of Gurk sang the Mass served by four Bishops and two of their prelates. The Bishop of Brixen, principal councillor here, gave the sign of peace to the King and Queen. A fine organ was played well. Excellent singers, and with them, the trombones now played. And then the cornetti. There was certainly a fine harmony.)

Here we therefore find an example of the practice of trombone and cornett performing together with the choir. This would become a feature of liturgical services at Maximilian’s court, albeit reserved for ceremonies of particular importance. In fact, this combination of wind instruments with the Hofkantorei was represented years later in the woodcuts for Maximilian’s Triumphzug (» I. Instrumentalkünstler). Performances of Maximilian’s choir with trombone and cornett also occurred in the churches of cities that the king visited on his travels, such as Augsburg.[44]

[42] Pandolfo Collenuccio, Innsbruck, to Ercole d’Este, 18 March 1494: Archivio di Stato di Modena dis amb germ, busta 1, recto. Summary of the letter in: Regesta Imperii Online, RI XIV,1 n. 478: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1494-03-16_1_0_14_1_0_482_478. See also Wiesflecker Bd. I, 368.

[43] This was Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the missing second son of Edward IV.

[44] See Green 2012Grassl 2019.