Antonio Francesco Gaetano Saverio Pacini

Antonio Francesco Gaetano Saverio Pacini (Naples, 1778 – Paris, 1866) was an Italian composer who spent most of his career in France, where he also became one of the most active music publishers in Paris. His significance rests less on his stage works than on his role in disseminating Italian opera and the art song in Paris during the first half of the nineteenth century.

He trained in Naples under Fenaroli at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini, where he studied harmony and counterpoint. After directing an orchestra and teaching in the city, he moved to Nîmes, where he became conductor of the theatre orchestra. His first comic opera, Isabelle et Gertrude, apparently premiered at the opening of the city's rebuilt theatre in 1801, although the exact date of the performance is not known with certainty. In 1804 he settled in Paris, where he worked as a singing teacher until at least 1822. Between 1805 and 1808, Isabelle et Gertrude and three other comic operas were premiered; these constitute his only stage output and, together with a large number of songs, form the bulk of his creative work.

His publishing activity began in 1808, when, in partnership with Momigny, he started issuing the Journal des troubadours, which appeared until around 1815. After a brief collaboration with Lélu and Bochsa, he set up independently in the rue Favart around 1810–1811, and later moved to various addresses on the boulevard des Italiens and other Parisian streets. In 1846 the business passed to Bonoldi Frères, although Pacini reopened a business in 1851 and remained on the rue Louis-le-Grand until his death.

Between 1820 and 1835 he was one of the leading publishers in the French capital, specialising in vocal scores of Italian operas, including numerous works by Mercadante, Bellini and Donizetti, and eighteen by Rossini between 1821 and 1827. He also published monthly song periodicals, such as Le troubadour ambulant and L'écho lyrique, as well as the first Parisian editions of Field's first six piano concertos, and caprices and sonatas by Paganini. In 1823 he turned down Beethoven's offer of the Diabelli Variations and four other works. In 1838 a fire that destroyed the Salle Favart largely ruined his firm, and several valuable manuscripts apparently disappeared; Parisian composers came to his aid with the series Livre musical des cent-et-un, to which Chopin contributed.

Pacini maintained close ties with Rossini and Paganini, whom he accompanied on Paganini's first visit to England in 1831. His legacy is considered above all editorial: his catalogues document Parisian musical life of his time, although his plate numbers do not always serve to date his publications reliably.