 thumb|upright|arcangelo corelli arcangelo corelli (17 february 1653 &ndash; 8 january 1713) was an italian violinist and composer of the baroque era. ==biography== baptismal records indicate that corelli was born on 17 february 1653 in the small romagna town of fusignano, then in the diocese of ferrara.allsop, p. 14 his family were land-owners who had lived in fusignano since 1506 (a corelli moved to the area from rome in the fifteenth century); although apparently prosperous, they were almost certainly not of the nobility, as several fanciful accounts of the composer's genealogy subsequently claimed. corelli's father, from whom he took the name arcangelo, died five weeks before the composer's birth. consequently, he was raised by his mother, santa (nÃ©e ruffini, or raffini), alongside four elder siblings. the wealth of anecdotes and legends attached to corelli contrast sharply with the paucity of reliable contemporary evidence documenting events in his life. this gap is especially pronounced for his formative years, including his musical education, even though traditional accounts of a highly idealized childhood have long been debunked.{{refn|group=n|most famously, abbot cesare felice laurenti's late eighteenth century "history of fusignano" had corelli born into a family of noble descent. as a young child, he is said to have been so transfixed by the violin playing of his local priest that he begged for lessons, which were conceded by another priest in the neighbouring town of san savino, where the boy walked every day, come rain or shine. while sheltering from the sun along the road, so the story goes, his magnificent violin playing would leave the locals entranced. having rapidly surpassed his teacher, corelli is said to have defied the wishes of his father (who in this account is still alive) in order to study in faenza, where the young genius is casually discovered by cardinal ottoboni who recommends him to the 
1653_births 1713_deaths 17th-century_Italian_people 18th-century_Italian_people Baroque_composers Composers_for_violin Italian_classical_composers Italian_classical_violinists People_from_the_Province_of_Ferrara People_from_the_Province_of_Ravenna