Claudio Monteverdi: His life and contributions.
Claudio Zuan (Giovanni) Antonio Monteverdi was born in Cremona in 1567. He was baptized on May 15 of the same year. He was born to Baldassare Monteverdi, who was a barber-surgeon, and Maddalena Zignani, a goldsmith's daughter . After a Milanese decree stating that surgery could not be practiced by individuals that have not been tested by a council, Baldassare became a founding member and president of an association of surgeons that were officially approved to practice surgery called Colegio dei Chirurghi (College of Surgeons) . This and other factors would indicate that the Monteverdi family came from humble beginnings but climbed socially. This is due in part to the fact that shortly after Baldassare and Maddalena were married, they moved from a location near the Cremona Chapel to the Belfiore district of the Piazzano quarter. This brought them greater economic prosperity, and Baldassare Monteverdi became known as a man with a decree of family wealth and of great public significance .
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) -
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), about age 30, at t...
Copy of a portrait of Claudio Monteverdi by Bernar...Not much is known about Monteverdi's life as a young man. We do know that his mother died around 1576, and his father remarried again in 1576 to Giovanna Gadio, and she bore him three more children in addition to the three that Maddalena had bore him. In 1584, after the death of his second wife, Baldassare married Francesco Como .
Claudio Monteverdi's earliest known musical training was with Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, a musician from Verona that was serving as an organist and a singer at the chapel, and may have become maestro di cappella by 1576 . The exact date Monteverdi began study is not known; it is estimated to have begun in the 1570's. He published his first book of music, Sacrae cantiunculae, in 1582, and his second book, Madrigali spirituali,