Italian composer. Hc was a pupil of Cazzati, maestro di cappella of S. Petronio, Bologna, where Vitali worked as a singer and cellist from 1658. He joined the Accademia filarmonica in 1666. He was maestro di cappella of S. Rosario, Bologna (1673), and from 1674 vice- maestro di cappella to Duke Francesco III at the Este court in Modena; he became the duke's maestro di cappella in 1684, but was demoted to vice -maestro in 1686. He was also a member of the Accademia dei Dissonati in Modena. His twelve published collections of instrumental music are important in the history of the Baroque sonata. He also wrote sacred and secular cantatas, oratorios, Psalms, and hymns. The sixty instrumental pieces contained in the didactic collection Artificii musicali (1689) constitute a contrapuntal tour de force.