author
Giuseppe Bertini
1759–1852
An Italian priest and musician from Palermo, he is best remembered for a four-volume musical dictionary that tried to map the history of writers on music and notable artists. His life joined church music, scholarship, and a deep interest in Sicilian culture.
4 Audiobooks
Dizionario storico-critico degli scrittori di musica e de' più celebri artisti, vol. 2 Di tutte le nazioni sì antiche che moderne
by Giuseppe Bertini
Dizionario storico-critico degli scrittori di musica e de' più celebri artisti, vol. 1 Di tutte le nazioni sì antiche che moderne
by Giuseppe Bertini
About the author
Born in Palermo on January 20, 1759, he was the son of the composer Salvatore Bertini and likely received his first musical training at home. He studied at the Scuole Pie degli Scolopi, was ordained as a Catholic priest, and built a career that blended music, learning, and clerical life.
Bertini served at Palermo's Cappella Palatina, first under his father and then, after 1794, as maestro di cappella himself. Sources also describe him as a scholar of Sicilian archaeology, literature, and cultural history, showing how wide his interests were beyond performance and composition.
He is chiefly remembered for the Dizionario storico-critico degli scrittori di musica e de' più celebri artisti di tutte le nazioni sì antiche che moderne, published in Palermo in 1814–1815 in four volumes. Though he also composed sacred music and worked as a choral conductor, that reference work remains the achievement most closely tied to his name. He died in Palermo on March 15, 1852.