Maddalena Casulana

(c. 1544 - c. 1590)

Though Renaissance women were often known performers of music, it was rare to achieve success as a professional composer; Maddalena Casulana (named for her Tuscan hometown of Casole d’Elsa) is considered the first, as well as the first to see her own secular music into print publication. She received her musical training in Florence and was active in Venice, Vicenza, and Milan. Her last-known madrigal was published in 1586, after which nothing about her life was recorded.