Burdened by famine, the plague, and economic hardship in the 1500s, the troubled citizens of Milan, mindful of their mortality, turned toward the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the creation of evangelical groups in her name. By 1594 the diversity of these lay religious organizations reflected in microcosm the varied expressions of Marian devotion in the Italian peninsula. Using archival documents, meditation and music books, and iconographical sources, Christine Getz examines the role of music in these Marian cults and confraternities in order to better understand the Church's efforts at using music to evangelize outside the confines of court and cathedral through its most popular saint. Getz reveals how the private music making within these cults, particularly among women, became the primary mode through which the Catholic Church propagated its ideals of femininity and motherhood.

Christine Getz is Associate Professor of Musicology and Dean's Scholar at the University of Iowa.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Venerating the Veil: The Madonna Of Miracles at Santa Maria presso San Celso
2. The Art of Lamenting: The Cult of the Madonna Addolorata at Santa Maria dei Servi
History of the Cult of the Madonna Addolorata
3. Singing before a Madonna on the Pilaster: The Society of the Ave Maria in Duomo
4. Invoking the Mulier Fortis: The Confraternity of The Rosary
5. Clothed in the Sun and Standing on the Moon: Meditating Motherhood in the Cult of the Madonna del Parto
Epilogue: The Case of Santa Maria Segreta
Appendix A: Documents
Appendix B: Pay records for the singers of the Ave Maria in Duomo
Appendix C: Contents of Selected Collections by Milanese Composers
Appendix D: Musical Examples
Notes
Bibliography
Index