Corteccia, (Pier) Francesco di Bernardo (1502–1571)

Italian organist and composer. He made a substantial contribution to the development of the madrigal; many of those he wrote were for particular occasions, the most famous being those composed for the wedding of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici to Eleonora of Toledo in 1539. He also wrote a considerable amount of liturgical music, though this is more conservative in style than his secular compositions.

From 1515 he served the Church of San Giovanni Battista, Florence, in various capacities and was organist there 1535–39. In 1531 he was appointed organist at the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, and from 1539 was maestro di cappella to Duke Cosimo I. For the marriage of Cosimo's son Francesco to Joanna of Austria in 1565 he collaborated with the elder Alessandro Striggio on music for Giovanni Battista Cini's intermezzo Psiche ed Amore. Corteccia also wrote a prologue, five intermedii, and an epilogue for Antonio Landi's comedy Il comodo, which was performed at the wedding banquet. The intermedii were written for solo singers, ensemble, and varying combinations of instruments to depict different times of the day; they were published in Corteccia's madrigal collection of 1547.

Works hymns in four parts, canticles and responses, madrigals; pieces for four to eight voices and instruments.