A street singer in Bologna in the second half of the sixteenth century, Giulio Cesare Croce sang about the everyday life of small urban occupations and peasants. The poor-the people who failed to make a living from their labor and those who fell on hard times due to a vice-ridden way of life-provided the source material for his work. Afflicted by conflicting passions, they gave Croce an opportunity to try out new forms of expression.