Although he was comparatively sparing of ornaments in his compositions, particularly those destined especially for religious services, he never departed from a florid style in his improvisations, which bristled with feats of skill and agility of technique. Abbé Maugars, who knew him at Rome in 1639, still praised the ornamentation and the marvellous cleverness of his improvised Toccatas. In 1643 Frescobaldi retired, having already enjoyed leave of absence from 1628 to 1633; these years he spent at Florence, in the service of Ferdinand II., Grand Duke of Tuscany. He did not long survive his retirement in 1643, which, however, was not absolute, for he took up the position of organist at the little Church of St. Lawrence _in montibus_. He died March 2, 1644; and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Frescobaldi's works--which cover the entire period of his life--are very numerous;[11] they were written, as a rule, for organ or harpsichord indifferently; one of his compositions, published at Rome in 1638, even bears the following title, "_Canzoni a 1, 2, 3, 4 voci_, written to be sung or to be played by all varieties of instruments." In some of his works a certain predetermination is nevertheless evident, recognizable either through their appropriateness for religious service, or by their obbligato pedal part, as in the Toccatas. [Footnote 11: We will not enumerate here all of Frescobaldi's works; we must be content to mention or analyze only those which from the point of view of our present study are most significant.] The collection of _Fiori musicali_[12] belongs to this category, for, with the exception of such pieces as the _Bergamasca_ or the _Girolameta_, it contains only selections designed for performance during church service. [Footnote 12: The following is the complete title: _Fiori musicali di diverse compositione, Toccate, Kyrie, Canzoni, Cappricci, e Ricercare in partitura a 4 utili per sonatori. Autore Girolamo Frescobaldi, organista di San Pietro di Roma. Opera duodecima. Con Privilegio. In Venetia. Apresso Alessandro Vicenti_, 1635. The volume bears the arms of Cardinal Ant. Barberino, to whom the work is inscribed (the dedication is dated August 20, 1635). The music is written in score, on four staves, each part with its proper clef; the rests are carefully written out.] Apart from their intrinsic value, these compositions comprising the _Fiori musicali_ bear for us this very potent interest: they are, without exception, copied entirely by the hand of Bach;[13] which shows the importance he attached to them and the pains he took to study them. [Footnote 13: This precious copy, of 104 pages (like the original), is dated 1714, and preserved in the library of the _Kgl. Institut für Kirchenmusik_, at Berlin.]