The modern term “music society” encompasses many very different kinds of institutions that bring together music-related interests (of a scholarly, artistic, or practical nature) into a society with an equally wide range of influences in the public sphere. During the early modern period, these might take the form of a circle of scholars, a club-like institution, or a concert society [1]. Although many societies, such as the academy of 16th-century northern Italy [4], operated under the aegis of the ruling dyna…