Saturday Hallie and I played a private party in Port Credit for a friend of ours. The theme was Italian so we did some guitar songs (Eri gia - Monteverdi, Dalla porta d'oriente - Caccini, Cantatas on Passacaglia and Ciacona by Sances ++). We included the Spanish texted ones from Naples from the manuscript that belonged to Adriana Basile. She was Monteverdi's contralto for a while. She was also chased up and down Italy by the Marquess of Mantua; once again the border between courtesan and singer blurs.

I've spent the last couple of days looking at Spanish sites of digitised books and music like the Cantigas de Santa Maria the Llibre Vermell and many, many more as they used to say on the K-tel ads. It's brave new world.

Above is a page from a book in the Portuguese National Library that has a modhino accompanied by two guitars (ie. Portuguese guitars) and a viola (ie. a Baroque guitar). That ensemble's been accompanying for a little while then. Tudo isto é fado.