Many scholars have shown the importance of musical education for noblemen in late Renaissance Italy. For both individuals and groups, music could be used as a tool for process of self-identity, helping them to construct their aesthetical forma del vivere. In fact, along with a sum of literate and aesthetical knowledge, music was an integral element of the culture of la conversazione. Noblemen and noblewomen displayed a large variety of artistic and literary virtues in courtly, academic and private-exclusive gatherings, in order to create distinctive spaces of sociability and self-fashioning. However, could the printing of music, composed by noblemen, affect or contradict their socio-cultural rules of distinction, exclusiveness and discretion? To address this issue, my dissertation will focus on the period between 1570 and 1620, in the Italian peninsula; where there was a major accumulation of composers who identified themselves as nobili or gentiluomini on the covers of their books. Through the case of count Alfonso Fontanelli, from Reggio Emilia, the aim of this thesis is to explore the role of musical composition in nobles' cultural sociability (incorporated in friendly and patronage networks) and the processes of construction of Fontanelli's cultural selfprestige. Fontanelli's biography provides a variety of socio-cultural experiences and interactions in the three different cities where he displayed his musical virtues: Ferrara, Rome and Florence. Hence, this case study allows us to compare the diverse functions of music for the nobility of these three cities (considering their respective socio-political and cultural particularities) as well as to contrast Fontanelli with other noble composers of the time. Finally, the results of this thesis will offer interesting reflections about the plasticity of noble culture and its relation with music, the diversity of socio-cultural strategies through musical practices, and the complex social dynamics involved in the concept of "authorship" in printed music.