Commenting on music in Juvenal's sixth Satire

The satires of Juvenal were immensely popular in Renaissance Italy, printed in various forms over 70 times in the period 1469-1520, and five times in 1501 alone. The satires contain a wealth of references to instruments, instrumentalists, and playing practices that are frequently used in double entendres connoting lewd acts and infidelity, most potently in the sixth satire. The five Renaissance commentaries printed alongside the satires in 1501 editions suggest how much contemporary scholars wished to say, or indeed not say, about these saucy musical passages. This article will examine the ways in which contemporary commentators unpack and explain musical aspects of the sixth satire, their surprisingly detailed and determined efforts adding up to a distinctive strand of music-historical study that is in evidence across numerous books of commentated classical verse from our 1501 corpus.