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Sulpitia Cesis (1577–c.1619)

Sulpitia Lodovica Cesis was an Italian composer born in Modena, Italy. The daughter of Count Annibale Cesis, she chose to enter the Augustinian convent of San Geminiano, renowned for its music, in Modena in 1593. Her only known work is the collection of 23 motets for two to twelve voices, Motetti Spirituali, which was published in 1619. The work is important both for the generally high quality of the works it contains and for the information it provides regarding performance practice in Italian convents in the early seventeenth century. Cesis dedicated the collection to a nun of the same name, Reverend Mother Anna Maria Cesis of the Convent of Santa Lucia in Rome, another priory that was also well known for its music. The motets are believed to have been performed at the doors of San Geminiano in 1596.

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