Marchetto of Padua

Marchetto da Padova (Marchettus of Padua; fl. 1305 – 1319) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the late medieval era. His innovations in notation of time-values were fundamental to the music of the Italian ars nova, as was his work on defining the modes and refining tuning. In addition, he was the first music theorist to discuss chromaticism.

Most likely he was born in Padua. Little is known about his life, but he is recorded as being music teacher for the choirboys at the cathedral in Padua in 1305 and 1306, and he left Padua in 1308 to work in other cities in the Veneto and the Romagna. His two major treatises seem to have been written between 1317 and 1319, shortly before Philippe de Vitry produced his Ars nova (c. 1322), which gave its name to the music of the age. Marchetto indicated in the treatises themselves that he wrote them at Cesena and Verona. There are no other reliable records of his life, although his fame was evidently widespread, and his work became hugely influential later in the 14th century.

Only three motets have been reliably attributed to Marchetto, one of them due to his name appearing as an acrostic in the text for one of the parts (Ave regina celorum/Mater innocencie). Based on another acrostic in the same motet, it seems it was composed for the dedication of the Scrovegni Chapel (also known as the Arena Chapel) in Padua on March 25, 1305.

Marchetto published two major treatises, the Lucidarium in arte musice plane (probably in 1317–1318), and the Pomerium in arte musice mensurate (probably 1318). He also published an abridged version of the Pomerium as the Brevis compilatio, though the date of this is not known. He stated in the Pomerium that he wrote it while staying at the house of Raynaldus de Cintis in Cesena, who was lord of the city from 1321 to 1326, however most scholars believe that the Pomerium was written in 1318.

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