Anthony Bassano

Who was Anthony Bassano?

Anthony Bassano was a 16th-century Italian musician.

Bassano, born in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, was one of six sons of Jeronimo Bassano who moved from Venice to England to the household of Henry VIII to serve the court, probably in 1540. Of his ten children, the five sons all served as musicians to the court of Henry VIII, and a daughter married Nicholas Lanier the Elder, grandfather of the artist-musician Nicholas Lanier.

The historian A.L. Rowse in his correspondence to The Times in 1973 claimed that the Bassanos were Jewish and Dr. David Lasocki of Indiana University claimed in his 1995 book that the family were converted Jews. However, Giulio M. Ongaro in his "New Documents on the Bassano Family" in Early Music and Alessio Ruffatti