Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger

Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (also: Johann(es) Hieronymus Kapsberger or Giovanni Geronimo Kapsperger; c. 1580 – Rome 17 January 1651) was an Austrian-Italian virtuoso performer and composer of the early Baroque period. A prolific and highly original composer, Kapsberger is chiefly remembered today for his lute and theorbo (chitarrone) music, which was seminal in the development of these as solo instruments.

First measures of the tablature of the first tocatta of the libro primo d'intavolatura di chitarone (first book of chitarone tablature) by Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger published in Venice in 1604. The monograph HK stands for Hieronymus Kapsberger.

His nickname was "the German of the theorbo", deriving from his fame as a virtuoso of the theorbo and of the other instruments belonging to the lute family.