A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Cerone, Domenico

by George Grove

CERONE, Domenico Pietro, priest, born at Bergamo, 1566, migrated to Spain in 1592, and entered the chapel of Philip II in 1593. In 1608 he left Spain for Naples, where he belonged to the Chapel Royal, and was living in 1613. His claim to mention is his treatise 'El Melopeo,' a folio volume, in Spanish, of 22 books and 1160 pages of small print (Naples, 1613), a work, according to the account of Fétis, valuable in some respects, but tedious, confused, and unequal to an astonishing degree. It is founded on the system of Zarlino; indeed there is some reason to believe that it is a mere redaction of a work with the same title which Zarlino speaks of as having completed in MS., but which has totally disappeared. The whole edition of Cerone's work is said to have been lost at sea except 13 copies, one of which is in the Fétis library of the Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, No. 5340.

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