He was born in
Longiano, near
Forlì. He studied in
Naples as a boy, but most of his career was spent in northern Italy. In 1582 he took a position as
maestro di cappella at
Imola cathedral. For the rest of his life he worked in a number of Italian cities in a similar capacity: in
Carpi (1591),
Venice, at
Cà Grande (1594 or 1595),
Montagnana (1595),
Ferrara (1597),
Osimo (1599),
Ravenna (1600),
Reggio (1603),
Forlì (later in 1603–1606). In 1606 he briefly returned to his post at Cà Grande in Venice, but almost immediately quit and moved to
Padua to become
maestro di cappella at the church of S Antonio there. His succession of appointments continued: in 1610 he was
maestro di cappella at
Assisi; in 1611 he returned to Imola, where he stayed for two years; and he returned to Cà Grande again, in 1615. In 1621 he moved back to Imola to resume his position there yet again; records of his activities end at that point. While his rapid changes of employment might give one the impression of a restless and unfaithful employee, he apparently was highly regarded as an honorable and professional man. What kept him from being in the first rank of composers may have been his succession of employments in backwater areas — for example he never held a post at San Marco, and his stay in Ferrara coincided with the takeover of that formerly avant-garde musical center by the
Papal States. ==Music and influence==