eighteen years Corelli was domiciled at Rome, under the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni.  As leader of the orchestra at the opera, he introduced many reforms, among them that of perfect uniformity of bowing.  By the violin sonatas composed during this period, it is claimed that Corelli laid the foundation for the art of violin-playing, though it is probable that he profited largely by those that went before him.  It was at the house of Cardinal Ottoboni that Corelli met Handel, when the violent temper of the latter did not hesitate to show itself.  Corelli was playing a sonata, when the imperious young German snatched the violin from his hand, to show the greatest virtuoso of the age how to play the music.  Corelli, though very amiable in temper, knew how to make himself respected.  At one of the private concerts at Cardinal Ottoboni’s, he observed his host and others talking during his playing.  He laid his violin down and joined the audience, saying he feared his music might interrupt the conversation.

In 1708, according to Dubourg, Corelli accepted a royal invitation from Naples, and took with him his second violin, Matteo, and a violoncellist, in case he should not be well accompanied by the Neapolitan orchestra.  He had no sooner arrived than he was asked to play some of his concertos before the king.  This he refused, as the whole of his orchestra was not with him, and there was no time for a rehearsal.  However, he soon found that the Neapolitan musicians played the orchestral parts of his concertos as well as his own accompanists did after some practice; for, having at length consented to play the first of his concertos before the court, the accompaniment was so good that Corelli is said to have exclaimed to Matteo:  “Si suona a Napoli!”—­“They do play at Naples!” This performance being quite successful, he was presented to the king, who afterward requested him to perform one of his sonatas; but his Majesty found the adagio “so long and so dry that he got up and left the room (!), to the great mortification of the eminent virtuoso.”  As the king had commanded the piece, the least he could have done would have been to have waited till it was finished.  “If they play at Naples, they are not very polite there,” poor Corelli must have thought!  Another unfortunate mishap also occurred to him there, if we are to believe the dictum of Geminiani, one of Corelli’s pupils, who had preceded him at Naples.  It would appear that he was appointed to lead a composition of Scarlatti’s, and on arriving at an air in C minor he led off in C major, which mistake he twice repeated, till Scarlatti came on the stage and showed him the difference.  This anecdote, however, is so intrinsically improbable that it must be taken with several “grains of salt.”  In 1712 Corelli’s concertos were beautifully engraved at Amsterdam, but the composer only survived the publication a few weeks.  A beautiful statue, bearing the inscription “Corelli princeps musicorum,” was erected to his memory, adjacent that honoring the memory of Raffaelle in the Pantheon.  He accumulated a considerable fortune, and left a valuable collection of pictures.  The solos of Corelli have been adopted as valuable studies by the most eminent modern players and teachers.