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The Court's System of Incentives and the Socio-Economic Status of Court Musicians in the Late 16th Century

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Abstract

This paper investigates the compensation of Court musicians in the late 16thcentury, a period of transitionfrom a medieval feudal system to a market economy. Using data from theTyrolian archives, the paper demonstratesthat one cannot measure the socio-economic status of Court musicians in theHousehold of Archduke Ferdinand IIin Innsbruck only by their wages, but that one must also take intoconsideration all of the financial, material, andnon-material incentives that a Court might provide in the late 16th century.The incentives provided byArchduke Ferdinand's Court in Tyrol constitute a patronage system that isrepresentative of other Courts at the time.

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Tschmuck, P. The Court's System of Incentives and the Socio-Economic Status of Court Musicians in the Late 16th Century. Journal of Cultural Economics 25, 47–62 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007612329921

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