DIRUTA, GEROLAMO. – Musician, born in Perugia around 1560. The date of his death is unknown. A pupil of Zarino, A. Gabrieli, Costanzo Porta, and C. Merulo, in 1574 he became a Conventual Franciscan friar, then organist in Venice (1582–93), Chioggia (1597), and Gubbio (from 1609); he was a respected composer and an outstanding theorist.
He wrote Il Transilvano, a valuable treatise on the manner of playing the organ: the first work known to the history of music in which organ technique is treated independently of that of the harpsichord. It is divided into two parts: 1) Dialogo sopra il vero modo di sonor organi e istromenti da penna (Venice 1597; 2nd ed. there 1612, followed by others); 2) Dialogo, divided into four books, sopra il vero modo e la vera regola d'intavolare canto (there 1609, 2nd ed. there 1622).