The 10th Duke of Medinaceli (1660–1711) was a brilliant patron of art and music as ambassador to Rome, viceroy of Naples and an active courtier in Madrid. His stay in Italy played a decisive role in the espousal of the models that modernised Spanish music in the early eighteenth century. His close contact with composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti and Arcangelo Corelli and experience in staging operas was a contributing factor. Whereas until now the changes in the musical history of that period in Spain have been explained chiefly by the circulation of certain forms of music and creators, this book takes the novel approach of focusing on the career of a powerful politician who made his musical milieu an instrument of diplomacy and propaganda in each city. Medinaceli embodies the most complete model of high culture of the nobility in the Spanish monarchy in the period from the decline of the Baroque to the rise of Enlightenment. This is the first study to do justice to his splendid facet of music lover and shows how musical patronage helped protect his image internationally in the unstable context of the War of the Spanish Succession.

José María Domínguez Rodríguez earned a European Doctorate from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He was a predoctoral fellow from 2005 to 2009, during which time he carried out research at the universities of Cambridge, Palermo and Naples. In 2011 he was awarded a musicology scholarship to study at the Real Academia de España in Rome. He has been a lecturer at the University of Extremadura and a postdoctoral fellow of the ‘Juan de la Cierva’ programme at the University of La Rioja. He is currently a full professor of Musicology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His studies have been published in journals such as Reales Sitios and Early Music.

“Um excelente exemplo do cruzamento entre a Musicologia e a História Cultural […] que faze mergulhar o leitor na complexa teia de relações que envolvia a vida e a cultura musical do Sul da Europa entre os finais do século XVII e os inícios do século XVIII”, Cristina Fernandes, Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia

“Il libro sul Medinaceli, con l’uscita dell’imminente monografia di Louise Stein sul Carpio, costituirà per lungo tempo un punto di riferimento fondamentale per comprendere il ruolo della musica in relazione alla politica, in una fase delicata della storia dell’Europa alla fine del grande secolo spagnolo”, Dinko Fabris, Il Saggiatore

“No hay biblioteca o archivo que no haya sido analizada por el estudioso o investigador italiano a la que no se haya acercado para recibir asesoramiento o intercambiar opiniones”, Paologiovanni Maione, Revista de Musicología

“‘El libro es una interpretación del sentido que la música tuvo como herramienta propagandística en manos de Medinaceli, a través de contextos cambiantes, caracterizados por gustos y usos musicales diversos'”, M. Cebrián, Artes y Letras, ABC Castilla-La Mancha