Francesco Spinacino was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 lutenist and composer. His surviving output comprises the first two volumes of Ottaviano Petrucci

Ottaviano Petrucci

Ottaviano Petrucci was an Italian printer. His Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of chansons printed in 1501, is commonly misidentified as the first book of sheet music printed from movable type. Actually that distinction belongs to the Roman printer Ulrich Han's Missale Romanum of 1476...

's influential series of lute music publications: Intabolatura de lauto libro primo and Intabolatura de lauto libro secondo (both 1507). These two collections comprise the first known printed lute music, and his first book was the first ever instrumental music book printed with the movable type

Movable type

Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document ....

 system.

Spinacino was apparently highly regarded by his contemporaries, as his music was widely copied: some of the pieces are found in manuscripts that originated in the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

. There are 81 pieces overall: 46 intabulation

Intabulation

Intabulation, from the Italian word intavolatura, refers to an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece for keyboard, lute, or other plucked string instrument, written in tablature. It was a common practice in 14th-16th century keyboard and lute music...

s, 27 ricercar

Ricercar

A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...

es, two bassadans

Basse danse

The basse danse, or "low dance", was the most popular court dance in the 15th and early 16th centuries, especially at the Burgundian court, often in a combination of 6/4 and 3/2 time allowing for use of hemiola...

 and six pieces for lute duet. The ricercares are among the most complex of the period; they have no clearly defined form and include several contrasting sections. Particularly notable is Recercare de tutti li toni, which moves through all modes. The duets are also historically important, for they present a sample of early 16th century performance practice: one of the lutes is given an intabulation of a chanson

Chanson

A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

's original tenor and bass, whereas the other plays in free counterpoint to the titular chanson.