Italian composer and virtuoso viol player, who worked at the Ferrara court for many years and wrote music for several dramatic productions there. His recitativelike solos, anticipating long in advance the new style of around 1600, mark an important stage in the development of dramatic music. He also published two volumes of madrigals and made elaborate and heavily ornamented arrangements of polyphonic music for solo viol (the viola bastarda or division viol style).