Fabrizio Dentice

Fabrizio Dentice
(b ?Naples, ?1539; d Parma, 1581, before 25 Feb). Instrumentalist and composer, son of (1) Luigi Dentice.

In 1545 he took part in the performance of the comedy Gl’ingannati in the Neapolitan palace of Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. He was in the service of Francesco Ferdinando d’Avalos, govenor of Milan, in the years 1562–7. But he was in Spain in March of 1564 when, in a letter to Lord Robert Dudley, Sir Thomas Chaloner reported that he had heard Fabrizio Dentice play the lute and sing in Barcelona and recommended him as worth an annual salary of 400 crowns. Vincenzo Galilei, in his Dialogo (1568), referred to him as an excellent lute player and improviser. In January 1569 Dentice entered the Duke of Parma’s service, where he assumed teaching duties. He remained in Farnese service, travelling frequently to Rome, until his death. He died in the palace of Barbara Sanseverino, Countess of Sala.