The biography of the Italian composer Francesco Vannarelli (c.1616-1679) is limited to a series of places and dates listed in scattered documents throughout the peninsula. Generally known only by the motets included in contemporary anthologies, Vannarelli worked nearly exclusively for the church. This thesis briefly chronicles Vannarelli's life and adds previously undocumented music to the list of his known works. Fedra ed Hippolito, Vannarelli's only known complete opera, follows the

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... dia tradition of Rome in the 17 th century and represents the first setting of the Phaedra myth in opera. This thesis makes Fedra ed Hippolito available for the first time in modern edition. included another of his motets in his anthology. 8 An inscription with his motet included in Andrea Fei's anthology of 1647 names him as the maestro di cappella of SS Apostoli in Rome where he remained until 1649. 9 On 23 February 1649 Vannarelli began working as the maestro di cappella for the cathedral in Spoleto, the first appointment in a series of five in that city. He left the position in 1650 and it appears from the inclusion of two new motets in Francesco Melvi's anthology that in that same year he relocated to Venice. 10 He became the maestro di cappella to S Spirito in Venice in 1651 but was back in Umbria by 1653 at the latest as the maestro di cappella to Cardinal Rapaccioli, a cardinal of significant influence and connected with the Barbarini family in Rome. 11 In that same year Vannarelli published 8