Jeronimo Bassano was an Italian musician who is noteworthy for having been head of a family of musicians — Anthony Bassano, Jacomo, Alvise, Jasper, John and Baptista — who moved from Venice to England and the household of Henry VIII to serve the court. Jeronimo himself never moved, however, but was listed in Venice as a "Maestro of the trumpets and shawms." It is not known whether he was related to the composer Giovanni Bassano.
Jeronimo was the son of Baptista "Piva" of Bassano del Grappa, a town 35 miles from Venice. Baptista was a musician who played the piva, a small bagpipe. He was the son of Andrea de Crespano who was from the village of Crespano, about nine miles east of Bassano. Andrea, Baptista and Jeronimo were all described as musicians and musical instrument makers. At the beginning of the 16th century, Jeronimo moved from Bassano to Venice where he was described as "Maestro Hieronimo", piffero player to the Doge of Venice between 1506 and 1512.[1] The historian A.L. Rowse in his correspondence to The Times in 1973 claimed that the Bassanos were Jewish[2] and Dr. David Lasocki of Indiana University claimed in his 1995 book that the family were converted Jews.[3] However, Giulio M. Ongaro in his "New Documents on the Bassano Family" in Early Music[4] and Alessio Ruffatti (who did research in the archives of Bassano del Grappa assisted by Professor Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini [5]) both argued that the Bassanos who moved to England were not of Jewish origin.[6]