A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Abbatini, Antonio

ABBATINI, Antonio Maria, was born at Tiferno, or at Castello (Baini), in 1595 or 1605, and died in 1677. Was successively Maestro di Cappella at the Lateran, the Church of the Gesu, and San Lorenzo in Damaso, and three times held the like office at Maria Maggiore; was also, for a time, maestro at the church of Loreto. Was offered by Pope Urban VIII the task of rewriting the Hymnal; but refused to supersede the music of Palestrina by any of his own. His published works consist of four books of Psalms and three books of Masses, some Antifone for twenty-four voices (Mascardi, Rome, 1630-1638, and 1677), and five books of Mottetti (Grignani, Rome, 1635). He is named by Allacci as the composer of an opera 'Del male in bene.' The greater part of his productions remain unprinted. Some academical lectures by him, of much note in their time, mentioned by Padre Martini, do not seem to have been preserved. He assisted Kircher in his 'Musurgia.'

[ E. H. P. ]