ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century, we typically associate social networking with internet websites such as Facebook and Twitter. For researchers, while there is academia. edu, conferences still remain the conventional forum for exchanging ideas face-toface, for forging academic friendships and often for providing a marketplace for scholarly books. What were the equivalent social networks in early seventeenthcentury Italy? How did musicians network and, moreover, to what ends? Both academies and religious institutions facilitated musical performance and amateur music-making; they were also the principal places where musical discussion occurred.2 Furthermore, the role of music and musical thought in these two forums stimulated the publication of music books. Communication between musicians could also be maintained through a common pastime: letter-writing.
