Martins, Isidoro Simões

Isidoro Simões Martins (fl. 1810-1837) was admitted to the Sé Patriarcal as an adult singer (‘Cantor’) in 1802 (Fernandes 2009, ii, p. 223). He was a copyist active in the Patriarchal Church in the period 1816-1826 (Marques 2012, p. 834) and is to be identified with Sé4 in Marques 2012. He very rarely signed his copies; an exception is a score of a ‘Hymno de Laudes’ for S. Joseph performed on 19 March 1826, inscribed ‘I.S. Martins’ (P-Lf, 325, E.7). 

Martins’ copies are thoroughly professional and meticulous in appearance. He often wrote the total number of sheets of paper he used on his title-pages. In addition, total numbers of bars tend to be written at the ends of movements. Elongated tails of downwards-pointing quavers are a distinguishing feature of his copies in P-Lf, which may be among the earliest examples of his work, though they are occasionally found in later manuscripts (e.g. P-Ln, F.C.R. 168//95).

An exceptionally large number of copies of sacred music in the Fundo do Conde de Redondo were copied by Martins using the same paper types. The precise circumstances in which these manuscripts were copied - whether they were copied for use at the 15th Conde de Redondo’s private chapel at the Bom Jardim or acquired from somewhere - remain an open question.

Cristina Fernandes, ‘O sistema produtivo da Música Sacra em Portugal no final do Antigo Regime: a Capela Real e a Patriarcal entre 1750 e 1807’, PhD thesis (Universidade de Évora, 2009).

António Jorge Marques, A obra religiosa de Marcos António Portugal (1762-1830): catálogo temático, crítica de fontes e de texto, proposta de cronologia (Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 2012), pp. 833-834, 851.