Asprilio Pacelli

He was a boy chorister at Cappella Giulia under Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He served at two Roman churches: Santa Maria in Monserrato and Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. Maestro di cappella of the Collegio Germanico (from 1595), he held the same position at S Pietro from 1602, but he left the post to Francesco Soriano from 1 January 1603; in the same year Pacelli became Maestro di cappella of King Sigismund III of Poland, who had one of the most important royal chapels in Europe.^[1] He remained at that position until his death. In appreciation, the King ordered an epitaph commemorating Pacelli to be constructed in the St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw.^[2] The original epitaph with the composer's portrait was destroyed when the Cathedral was also destroyed during the Planned destruction of Warsaw;^[3] it was nonetheless reconstructed after the war.