CAFFI, FRANCESCO

CAFFI, FRANCESCO. – Composer and music historian, b. in Venice in 1778, d. in Padua in 1874. After serving as a counsellor of the court of appeal in Milan until 1827, he studied in Venice, conducting valuable research in the archives and publishing a work of fundamental importance for the musical history of Venice: Storia della musica sacra nella già cappella ducale di S. Marco in Venezia dal 1318 al 1797 (2 vols., Venice 1854–55), as well as various monographs on B. Furlanetto (there 1820), A. Lotti (there 1835), B. Marcello (there 1830 and 1841), Zarlino (there 1836), Dragonetti (there 1846), and Asola (there 1862). His fame as a composer is considerably lesser; he left only one cantata, entitled L'armonia richiamata (1811).