Traces of Jewish Musicians in the Writings of Lomazzo

The discovery of traces of Jewish musicians in Lomazzo’s Trattato dell’Arte Della Pittura would no doubt be of interest to historians of Jewish music as well as to art historians in general.  Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo was one of the most significant writers on the subject of art during the period of the late Renaissance, and his Trattato, which appeared in Milan in 1584, is the most exhaustive work of its kind.  In studying Lomazzo’s theory of art we often have the feeling that he is relying on sources that are unknown to us.  In this connection we must take into account not only the vast erudition that characterized so many of the humanistic writers of the sixteenth century but also the oral traditions – stories, explanations, conceptions – that Lomazzo had heard and incorporated into his writings without mentioning their sources.  It is naturally very difficult to determine the origin of these traditions since we generally have no texts on which we can depend.  For this reason even seemingly casual references may prove to be significant.