Italian composer. An infant prodigy ‹ he is said to have composed a 2-part ricercare at the age of ten ‹ he was a pupil of Pietro Vinci and spent most of his working life in Palermo, though he may have visited Venice c.1600-3. Only Monte was a more prolific madrigalist than il Verso, whose thirty-nine publications included twenty-three madrigal books, the remainder comprising church and instrumental music. His style shows many characteristics of mannerism; his early work however owes more to Wert than to Gesualdo.