Giovan Maria worked for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este in 1503 and 1506-7.
Ferrarese pay books record him variously as
che sa sona de liuto
che sona de lira
A Zoan Maria Judio, sonadore, per una casa per mete dentro le viole
The document is given in Prizer “The frottola and the unwritten tradition, p. 7 n. 53. Giovan Maria’s presence in Ferrara is reported in Lockwood, “Adrian Willaert and Cardinal Ippolito I d’Este” (1985) pp. 97, 111.
Giovan Maria compiled a lute book which is now lost. Hernan Colón purchased a copy of it in Rome in 1512. (see Chapman JAMS 21 (1968)
• Minamino (minamino2004-2, p. 61): Giovan Maria, who is recorded as the player of the lute and the viola at the court of the d’Este in Ferrar in 1507, was in the employ of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, in 1510. Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa, who stole two ‘spagnolj’ belonging to the court of Mantua in 1502, attempted to procure the position held by Giovan Maria at the court of Urbino in the same year. On this episode, see minamino1997-1, pp. 9-16.