Born in Lisbon, Jerónimo Francisco de Lima (1741?, 43? -1822), after his studies at the Patriarchal Seminary, where he enters with ten years old, and for already know something about music, as the book seats this institution says, he studied in Naples, where he was sent by King José I, at the end of 1760. In the year of 1798, succeeded João de Sousa Carvalho on the charge of Chapel Master of the Patriarchal Seminary, although ,in 1785, the libretto La Vera Costanza has already identified him as prime Maestro di Cappella del Real Seminario di Lisbona. Part of what is known about him, comes from the fact that he was a private musician of William Beckford during 1787, when this this British eccentric stayed in Portugal , author of a detailed diary. Besides sacred music and some folk songs, he composed lots of profane dramatic-musical repertoire, including four works for the court entertainment.
Naples not only was then a capital of opera, how it was as characterized in the Italian scenario then, according to the historian pioneer Charles Burney, for a particular solicitude in the instrumental composition, which came, in some cases ,to better reflect the plot and the psychological states of the characters rather than the singers themselves. This will have been the environment in which Jerónimo Francisco de Lima formed his instrumental character, certainly also marked by harpsichordist activity, pianist and organist, according to the testimony of Beckford, versed in several genres of chamber music. In the operas of Lima, instrumental passages are elaborated, going far beyond the simple voice accompaniment with a motivic treatment very consistent and great refinement in the writing of articulation and dynamic details. A careful differentiation between writing notes with independent or joined by bars pennants, for example, demonstrates how detailed this composer was.