Antonio Squarcialupi was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 and composer. He was the most famous organist in Italy in the mid-15th century.

Life

He was born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 to a butcher with the family name of Giovanni; however he took the name of Squarcialupi, a well-known family from Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, by mid-century, possibly to disguise his less than aristocratic origins. Most of his early life must have been spent in Florence, and he likely studied with both organist Giovanni Mazzuoli

Giovanni Mazzuoli

Giovanni Mazzuoli was an Italian composer and organist of the late medieval and early Renaissance eras....

 (also called Jovannes de Florentia, who was a pupil of Francesco Landini

Francesco Landini

Francesco degli Organi, Francesco il Cieco, or Francesco da Firenze, called by later generations Francesco Landini or Landino was an Italian composer, organist, singer, poet and instrument maker...

), as well as Matteo di Pagolo da Prato.

He acquired the post of organist at the Orsanmichele

Orsanmichele

Orsanmichele is a church in the Italian city of Florence...

 in Florence in 1431, but only remained there for two years, moving instead to the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Santa Maria del Fiore

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi...

, at which post he remained for the rest of his life. He has been honored with a bust in this church.

Music and influence

Squarcialupi was part of the court of Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets...

, and was also a colleague of Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century.-Early life:From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of...

; there are numerous laudatory references to him in the middle of the 15th century, some, for instance that of diarist Luca Landucci

Luca Landucci

Luca Landucci was an Italian apothecary from Florence, best known as the writer of a diary which later became an important primary source about the history of Florence....

, comparing him in stature to figures such as the sculptor Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

. Evidently he was quite close to Lorenzo, and this is mentioned in his epitaph in Florence Cathedral.

None of his music has survived. His principal fame in music history, aside from his fame as an organist, is to have given his name to the splendid Squarcialupi Codex

Squarcialupi Codex

The Squarcialupi Codex is an illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century...

, a document he owned (but did not compile), and which is the richest source of music from Italy of the 14th century.