A Stuart Musician's Conversion to Catholicism: Richard Dering and the Venerable English College, Rome

Abstract

The English organist and composer Richard Dering (c.1580-1630) is recognized today for his key role in the transmission of Italian musical styles to Seicento Britain. His early seventeenth-century travels and contacts made throughout the Italian peninsula led him to work in the Low Countries before he eventually returned to England as a prominent Stuart court musician. This article presents several new archival findings on Dering's transnational musical career, conversion to Catholicism, and sojourn in Italy, where he was employed for his musical services at the Venerable English College in Rome. There, covertly monitored by English diplomatic agents, Dering composed music and became ensconced within the city's English and Welsh Catholic community. We consider the possible liturgical functions of Dering's Latin motet repertories at the college and elsewhere in early modern Rome. Our re-examination of his social and familial connections also reveals the likely source of Dering's later patronage in Brussels.