Michelangelo
Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, known today as Caprese Michelangelo, a small town situated in Valtiberina, near Arezzo, Tuscany. For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in Florence; but the bank failed, and his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took a government post in Caprese, where Michelangelo was born. At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the town's Judicial administrator and "podestà" or local administrator of Chiusi della Verna. Michelangelo's mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. The Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa—a claim that remains unproven, but which Michelangelo believed.
Ignacio de Jerusalem
Jerusalem was born Ignazio Gerusalemme on June 3, 1707 in Lecce, Italy. His father was Matteo Gerusalemme, a Neapolitan who had moved to Lecce in 1689 to become chapel master. One of eleven children, Jerusalem studied the violin extensively in Italy before moving in 1732 to the Spanish port city of Cádiz. Establishing himself as a virtuoso of the instrument, he performed regularly at the Coliseo de Cádiz, the city's preeminent theatre. Jerusalem was soon known as the "musical marvel" for his uncanny musical talents.