Matteo Carcassi
Italian musician (1796–1853)
Matteo Carcassi (8 April 1792 – 16 January 1853) was an Italian guitarist, teacher and composer.
Biography
Carcassi was born in Florence, Italy, and first studied the piano, but learned guitar when still a child. He quickly gained a reputation as a virtuoso concert guitarist before the age of twenty.
Around 1810, he moved to Germany gaining almost immediate success. From 1811, he may have served as a musician in the French army during the Napoleonic Wars until 1815. By 1815, he had settled in Paris, where he earned his living as a teacher of both the piano and the guitar.
On a concert tour in Germany in 1819, he met his friend Jean-Antoine Meissonnier for the first time. Also a well-known guitarist, Meissonnier published many of Carcassi's works in his Paris publishing house. For Meissonnier, he also arranged a number of popular songs for guitar that were originally written for piano, including works by Théodore Labarre and Loïsa Puget.
From 1820 onward, Carcassi spent the majority of his time in Paris.
The public source identifies “Matteo Carcassi” as italian musician (1796–1853). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Matteo, Carcassi and Italian.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Matteo Carcassi”, the useful work is to connect “italian musician (1796–1853)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q469912. The first chronological checks are 1792, 1853, 1810 and 1811.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Matteo Carcassi”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Matteo Carcassi primary sources, Matteo Carcassi archive and Matteo research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Matteo Carcassi”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Matteo Carcassi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.