Stephen
It is a quabtity of money as shown here, one thousand ducats.
http://books.google.fr/books?id=dwkMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA144&dq=mille+ducas
but perhaps you are not asking this but for the musical origin.
ducat |=CB=88d=C9'k=C9't|
noun
1 a gold coin formerly current in most European countries.
a Euro =A2 ( ducats) informal money : their production of Hamlet has kept the
ducats pouring in.
2 informal a ticket, esp. an admission ticket.
ORIGIN from Italian ducato, originally referring to a silver coin
minted by the Duke of Apulia in 1190: from medieval Latin ducatus
(see duchy ). Sense 2 dates from the late 19th cent.
Anthony
Le 18 avr. 08 =C3! 18:15, Stephen Kenyon a =C3=A9crit :
> Does anybody know the meaning, and perhaps background, of the title
> of the galliard - which I know from an ensemble (crumhorn?) version
> - Mille ducas. And is there anywhere a lute version of it? - it
> seems to have travelled through various versions.
>
> Thanks all,
>
> Stephen K
>
>
>
>
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