Italian classical music is difficult to do if everyone is singing a melody at the same time; thus, polyphony gave way to homophony, and early opera consisted of relatively simple melodies with texts about Greek mythology, sung in Italian and supported by simple harmonies. The important city in Italy in this development of music in the 16th century was Florence. (See also: Florentine Camerata, Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Peri, Palestrina, Arcangelo Corelli.) Besides Florence, two other Italian cities are particularly worthy of mention in the period around 1600. There is somewhat of a friendly rivalry between advocates of the two cities as to which
Jacopo Strada that he had received the manuscript from Serlio himself in Lyon in 1550. He died in Prague and is buried in the Church of St. Nicholas in the Malá Strana. His son, Ottavio Strada (1550–1607), his assistant at the Hofburg, followed in his father's footsteps in the service of the Imperial court as expert in works of art. Ottavio's daughter Katharina was a favourite of Emperor Rudolph II, and bore him six children. Jacopo Strada Jacopo Strada (Mantua, 1507 — Prague 1588) was an Italian polymath courtier of the 16th century, a painter, architect, goldsmith, inventor of machines, numismatist, linguist,