Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (also: Johann(es) Hieronymus Kapsberger or Giovanni Geronimo Kapsperger; c. 1580 – Rome, January 17, 1651) was an Austrian-Italian virtuoso and composer of the early Baroque period. Kapsberger was a prolific and highly original composer, best known today for his music for lute and theorbo (chitarrone), which was groundbreaking for the development of these instruments as solo instruments.
First bars of the tablature of the first toccata from Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger’s libro primo d’intavolatura di chitarone (first book of chitarron tablature), published in Venice in 1604. The monograph HK stands for Hieronymus Kapsberger.
His nickname was “the German theorbo player,” which can be attributed to his fame as a virtuoso of the theorbo and other instruments from the lute family.
Nothing is known about the date and place of Kapsberger’s birth. His father, Colonel Wilhelm (Guglielmo) von Kapsperger, was a military official of the Austrian imperial family and may have settled in Venice, the city where Kapsberger may have been born.
After 1605, Kapsberger moved to Rome, where he quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant virtuoso. He cultivated relationships with various influential individuals and organizations and hosted “academies” in his home, which were considered one of the “wonders of Rome.” Around 1609, Kapsberger married Gerolima di Rossi, with whom he had at least three children. Around the same time, he began to publish his music, and over the next ten years, more than a dozen music collections appeared. Among them was the famous Libro I d’intavolatura di lauto (1611), Kapsberger’s only surviving collection of music for lute.
In 1624, Kapsberger entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, where he worked with numerous important composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Stefano Landi and poets such as Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX. Kapsberger worked in Barberini’s household until 1646. He died in 1651.