ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to draw attention to the importance of correspondence as a means of social networking for musicians in early seventeenth-century Italy. Adriano Banchieri's surviving printed letters in his Lettere armoniche and Lettere scritte abound in information of how a musician kept in contact with numerous others through regular correspondence. Prior to exploring the different networks which Banchieri cultivated and maintained, an understanding of the composition of the Lettere publications, and of the form that his printed letters took and of their recipients is necessary. Some letters, cover more music-theoretical topics, and demonstrate that Banchieri contributed to contemporary theoretical debate. The monk-musician reports the universal pleasure experienced when such an eminent musician as Claudio Monteverdi honoured his and Girolamo Giacobbi's musical academy with his presence at a public meeting at San Michele in Bosco on the day of St Anthony, June 1620.
