Medici Codex of 1518

The Medici Codex of 1518 is one of the most significant music books of the European 16th century. It contains 53 motets by a total of 21 leading Renaissance composers from France, Flanders, Portugal and Italy. The manuscript is the only surviving evidence of the work of the Portuguese composer Andreas de Silva (fl. 1520) and features, among other pieces, the famous Déporation de Ockeghem - a heartfelt lament on the death of the Franco-Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410-1497). The French court composer Jean Mouton (ca. 1459-1522), ten of whose motets can also be found in the Medici Codex, may have been responsible for the compilation of the work. Its patron was the Medici Pope Leo X (1475-1521), who gave the valuable manuscript to his nephew Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (1492-1519) and his bride Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne (1498-1519) for their wedding. After the marriage took place on 2 May 1528 in Amboise in France, the gift was presented on the couple's triumphant arrival in Florence. The illumination of the codex is appropriately splendid, with its pages adorned all over with beautiful decorated initials.