Antonio Naldi

Antonio Naldi, known as Il Bardella, was an Italian lutenist and singer associated with the Medici court in Florence, where he died in January 1621. He is sometimes cited as "of Bologna", possibly through a connection with the composer Romolo Naldi, although this is not known with certainty. His significance lies in his role in court music at the close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth.

From 1571 he appears in association with the Florentine court and, by around 1588, was already responsible for looking after the sovereign's musical instruments. In 1609 he earned a high salary of 16 scudi a month, comparable to that of Giulio Caccini. He performed frequently at court, chiefly as an instrumentalist, though he also sang on occasion, as in the first of the intermedi marking the wedding of Grand Duke Ferdinand I to Christina of Lorraine in 1589.

Emilio de' Cavalieri attributed the invention of the chitarrone to him, according to a letter to Luzzasco Luzzaschi of 1592; however, it seems that Naldi designed it and premiered it in those intermedi of 1589. Caccini praised his virtuosity in the preface to Le nuove musiche. He also stood as guarantor for the castrato Onofrio Gualfreducci in 1593 and recommended Antonio Brunelli for the post of maestro di cappella at Santo Stefano in Pisa in 1612.

Francesco Rasi remarked that, although he lived modestly, Naldi left about 24,000 scudi at his death, a sum remarkable for a musician of his time.