Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal

One of the great lute players of the late Baroque period turns out to have been an aristocrat.  Jan Antonín Losy was a German (well, Bohemian) nobleman, the Count von Losinthal.  His castle in the Czech town of Štěkeň is shown here.

Nice place.

Unusual for a noble of the day, he attended University in Prague.  Typical of a noble of the day he traveled extensively as a young man.  During these travels he seems to have spent considerable time with musicians, developing a talent for the lute.  His talent was such that he developed a reputation as one of the finest lute players in Europe.

Despite this reputation, he published very few of his compositions during his lifetime.  Likely this was because music was a hobby to him, rather than a profession.