ABSTRACT
Following the election of Giovanni de’ Medici as Pope Leo X on 11 March 1513, singers, instrumentalists and composers from all over Western Europe flocked to Rome in great numbers, apprised of new opportunities for employment. The most obvious explanation is that de Silva wrote the cantus firmus himself. But why he should have done this, especially considering the established tradition of ‘state motets’ wherein the cantus firmus was not only drawn from a pre-existent melody, but from one with some relevance to the occasion at hand, is not clear. A state motet was exactly the type of piece in which to employ such symbolism in the assurance that its dedicatee would enjoy the artifice. The motet, then, could have been written for a Roman occasion, either to have been sung during the Mass itself, or to have been performed during or after the banquet that would have followed the ceremony.
