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 Facciolati Jacopo Facciolati Jacopo Facciolati (1682–1769) was an Italian lexicographer and philologist. He was born at Torreglia, in what is now the province of Padua (then in the Republic of Venice), in 1682. He was admitted to the seminary of Padua thanks to Cardinal Barberigo, who had formed a high opinion of the boy's talents. As professor of logic and regent of the schools, Facciolati became the leading academic of Padua university during a period of forty-five years. He published improved editions of several philological works, such as the "Thesaurus Ciceronianus" of Nizolius, and in 1719 he brought out a revised