Andrea Antico - Work and Influence

Work and Influence

Unlike Petrucci, who used moveable type and a multiple-impression technique, Antico made woodblock prints. While this technology was older than moveable type and more laborious to prepare, it allowed for high-quality prints when done by a fine craftsman, and Antico was acknowledged to be one of the finest woodblock printers of the time.

One of his Roman-period publications, the Liber quindecim missarum of May 9, 1516, contained masses by Josquin des Prez, Pierre de La Rue, Antoine Brumel, Jean Mouton, Antoine de Févin, and Matthaeus Pipelare. This was the first sacred music to be published at Rome itself (Petrucci had published sacred music in Venice more than a decade earlier). Antico told Pope Leo X in the dedication that he had spent three years laboriously preparing the woodcuts for this publication. The graphic artist responsible for the cover page designs as well as the abundant illustrations in the Liber quindecim missarum and elsewhere was probably Giovanbattista Columba.

While in Venice, he published many kinds of music, including frottole by Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara arranged for voice and lute; French motets and chansons; motets, including a collection of works by Willaert; and some of the first books of madrigals, including collections by Philippe Verdelot and Jacques Arcadelt.

Antico was also a composer, and occasionally included his own frottole in his publications, signing them "Andrea Anticho D.M." They are in a light, fairly simple, and homophonic musical style.