Around 1563, Vincenzo Galilei began formal study with Gioseffo Zarlino in Venice, after Count Giovanni de' Bardi financed his musical education. Zarlino, already the leading music theorist of the sixteenth century and maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s, became Galilei’s teacher and introduced him to advanced contrapuntal and theoretical principles.
Galilei’s early respect for Zarlino’s authority shaped his initial theoretical outlook, though his later exposure to the ideas of Girolamo Mei eventually led him to question and criticize his former teacher’s positions. Nonetheless, their relationship began as a direct student–teacher connection, grounded in Galilei’s studies under Zarlino in Venice during the 1560s.
