Francesco Castelli (1505?-1578)

Francesco Castelli seems likely to have been born into a family of Milanese nobility, probably in 1505.  By 1532 he was a canon (“ordinarius”) at Milan Cathedral and was assigned to the “Fabbrica del Duomo”, the body responsible for construction of the “new” cathedral.  This project had been in progress since 1389 and was still not complete. 

Castelli had a great interest and pride in Milan, its cathedral and its history.   One of his predecessors, Giovanni Pietro Visconti, had compiled and copied various documents and inscriptions on this theme; Castelli took this collection and greatly enhanced it, adding his own observations and comments, and assembling a manuscript which he entitled his Quodlibet.  He also included accounts of various events that he himself had witnessed.  The original manuscript was preserved in the library of the Cathedral chapter though copies were subsequently also made for the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.     This work is a major source of information about the history of the Cathedral and about the Ambrosian liturgy which was preserved there. 

Castelli died in Milan in 1578.