Editing Arcangelo Corelli (section)

===Childhood===
Baptismal records indicate that Corelli was born on 17 February 1653 in the small [[Romagna]] town of [[Fusignano]], then in the [[diocese of Ferrara]],<ref>Allsop, p. 14</ref> in the [[Papal States]]. His ancestors had been in Fusignano and land-owners there since 1506, when a Corelli moved to the area from Rome. Although apparently prosperous, they were almost certainly not of the nobility, as several fanciful accounts of the composer's genealogy subsequently claimed.{{efn|group=n|Some family trees even attempted to trace Corelli's ancestors back to Noah. Contemporary documents in the [[Piancastelli]] collection in [[Forlì]] provide valuable background information about the genealogy and character of the Corelli family. Maps indicate that the Corellis owned a conspicuous quantity of agricultural land around Fusignano. Despite their religious piety, the Corellis appear to have been embroiled in a conflict with the Calcagnini family, the established [[feudal]] rulers of Fusignano; in 1632, the papal executioner beheaded and quartered a certain Rodolfo Corelli after a failed uprising in which his family house was torn down.<ref name=Buscaroli1983/>}} Corelli's father, from whom he took the name Arcangelo, died five weeks before the composer's birth. Consequently, he was raised by his mother, Santa (''née'' Ruffini, or Raffini), alongside four elder siblings, inclunding Don Ippolito Corelli (1643–1727), Domenico Corelli (1647–1719) and Giacinto Corelli (1649–1719).<ref name=Buscaroli1983>{{cite web|last=Buscaroli|first=Piero|title=Corelli, Arcangelo|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/arcangelo-corelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/|work=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 29|publisher=[[Treccani]]|year=1983}}</ref>

The wealth of anecdotes and legends attached to Corelli contrast sharply with the paucity of reliable contemporary evidence documenting events in his life. This gap is especially pronounced for his formative years, including his musical education; traditional accounts of a highly idealized childhood have long been debunked.{{efn|group=n|Most famously, Abbot Cesare Felice Laurenti's late eighteenth century "History of Fusignano" had Corelli born into a family of noble descent. As a young child, he is said to have been so transfixed by the violin playing of his local priest that he begged for lessons, which were conceded by another priest in the neighbouring town of San Savino, where the boy walked every day, come rain or shine. While sheltering from the sun along the road, so the story goes, his magnificent violin playing would leave the locals entranced. Having rapidly surpassed his teacher, Corelli is said to have defied the wishes of his father (who in this account is still alive) to study in [[Faenza]], where the young genius is casually discovered by [[Cardinal Ottoboni]], who recommends him to the pope, who in turn promptly summons him to Rome. Fictitious accounts such as this were comprehensively exposed in the pioneering biographies of Carlo Piancastelli (1914) and [[Marc Pincherle]] (1933).}}<ref>Allsop, pp. 3–14</ref>