Giovanni da Cascia [Jovannes de Cascia, Johannes de Florentia, Maestro Giovanni da Firenze]
- Kurt von Fischer
- , revised by Gianluca D’Agostino
Extract
[Jovannes de Cascia, Johannes de Florentia, Maestro Giovanni da Firenze]
(fl northern Italy, 1340–50). Italian composer. No definitive documentary evidence relating to Giovanni’s life has yet come to light. It would seem from the surname ‘de Florentia’ or ‘de Cascia’ that he came from the village of Cascia on the Via Cassia near Florence (not to be confused, as it sometimes has been, with the Umbrian Cascia). There is no support for the view that Giovanni was active at Florence Cathedral. This theory can be traced back to the corrupt edition by Galletti of Villani’s Florentine chronicle (see Li Gotti, 1947). No documents are extant which prove Giovanni’s stay in Florence, but the ‘Ser Giovanni degli Organi’ who is mentioned about 1360 at the church of Santa Trìnita (Florence) might conceivably be Giovanni da Cascia. A cutler named Giovanni da Firenze is mentioned in the lists of the Laudesi brotherhood of S Reparata (the former Florentine Cathedral) intermittently between ...
