Who was Orazio Michi dell'Arpa?

Orazio Michi was born in 1595 in Alife, at the time a small town in the Kingdom of Naples, now in the province of Caserta.
As a young man, in 1613 he served Cardinal Alessandro Damasceni Peretti Montalto in Rome, a highly culturally significant environment for the time. He was successful as a harp virtuoso and as a composer of secular and spiritual cantatas.