Francesco Portinaro

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Francesco Portinaro (c. 1520 - ?1578) was an Italian composer and humanist of the Renaissance, active both in northern Italy and in Rome.

He was closely associated with the Ferrarese Este family, worked for several humanistic Renaissance academies, and was well-known as a composer of madrigals and dialogues.

He was born in Padua around 1520. While he published a book of motets in Venice in 1548, no biographical details are available for the period before 1550.

He was the son of a Paduan official, was married to Laura d'Este, and was resident in the Este palace in Padua.

In 1555 he applied unsuccessfully for the post of maestro di cappella, music director, at the city's cathedral, and failing in this enterprise, spent the rest of the decade in humanistic as well as musical pursuits.