Ruggier Trofeo (c. 1550 - September 19, 1614) was an Italian composer and organist. His name is sometimes rendered as Ruggiero De Trofeis. Trofeo appears to have been a native of

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

; an anthology of music by natives of that city contains one madrigal by him, and in his 1589 book of '' canzonette'' he is described as being a "Mantuan". He was most likely a pupil of

Francesco Rovigo Francesco Rovigo (1540/1541 – 7 October 1597) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance, active in Mantua and Graz. Life Nothing is known of his life prior to 1570, when he went to Venice, already 29 or 30 years old, to re ...

, as several of the older composer's works were at one point combined with his own for publication. He served as organist of the Mantua Cathedral during the winter of 1576-77, acting as deputy for Annibale Coma. By 1587 he had become the organist of the Basilica palatina di Santa Barbara, in the same city. In May of that year, Trofeo was seriously wounded in an encounter with his patron,

Guglielmo Gonzaga Guglielmo Gonzaga (24 April 1538 – 14 August 1587) was Duke of Mantua from 1550 to 1587, and of Duke of Montferrat, Montferrat from 1574 to 1587. He was the second son of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Margaret Palaeologina of Montferra ...

, over a woman. Musicologist David Mason Greene describes the incident thus:

In 1587, Duke Guglielmo found him in a back street chatting with a woman whose company he deemed unfitting for a church organist, and when Trofeo told him to mind his business, the duke punctured him to a considerable depth with his sword. What the duke was doing in a back street, history does not say, and he died three months later anyhow.

Other sources further record that the duke was in disguise at the time, which may account for Trofeo's reaction to his request; they also note that Gonzaga's death three months after the incident likely prevented the musician from suffering further punishment for his disobedience. In the 1590s Trofeo took a position as organist at San Marco, Milan; sometime early in the next century he moved to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

, performing at Turin Cathedral while acting as '' maestro di cappella'' for the chamber chapel of the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

. It was in that city that Trofeo died. His son Giovanni Cristoforo was an organist as well. Trofeo composed a handful of works for his instrument, and in 1589 published a book of ''canzonette''. He also produced music for instrumental ensemble. studied with Trofeo, likely just before he relocated to Turin; a handful of letters between the two survive, in which Borsieri apologizes for and explains his decision to abandon music for other pursuits.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Trofeo, Ruggier 1550s births 1614 deaths Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian classical organists Male classical organists Cathedral organists 16th-century Italian composers 16th-century classical composers 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century classical composers 17th-century male musicians Musicians from Mantua