Madama Europa, probabiliter rite Europa Rossi (floruit 1600), soror Salomonis Rossi, violinistae compositorisque Iudaici, fuit una ex primis cantoribus operaticis.[1] Ea probabiliter nomen sumpsit ex Europa, persona mythologica quam ea in intermedio apud curiam regalem Mantuae ante 1600 oblato egit.[2] Veri simile est eam cum fratre necatam esse anno 1630, quando, Gonzagis a copiis imperialibus victis curiaque Gonzagana confecta, milites imperiales quadratum Iudaicum diripuerunt.[3]

  1. Don Harran, "Madama Europa, Jewish Singer in Late Renaissance Mantua," in Festa Musicologica: Essays in Honor of George J. Buelow, ed. Thomas J. Mathiesen et Benito V. Rivera (1995), 197.
  2. Eduard Birnbaum et Judith Cohen, Jewish Musicians at the Court of the Mantuan Dukes (1542-1628) (1978): "However, Newman points out that the name 'Madama Europa' is listed already before 1600 among the salaried employees of the Mantuan court; he therefore assumes that Rossi's sister had already appeared as 'Europa' in an earlier Intermezzo."
  3. Shlomo Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977).