Although little is known of the life of Giovanni Picchi, he was famous enough to be depicted in a picture on the title page of Fabritio Caroso's Nobilità de dame, published in Venice in 1600 and in a second edition in 1605. He is shown as a lute player. He was the organist of the Cà Grande in Venice in 1615 and his own publication, Canzoni da sonar, published in 1625, still has him there. It is also known that he concurrently had the post of organist of the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice from March 1623, but that he lost out to Giovanni Pietro Berti for the post of second organist at the great Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice in 1624. He left to posterity one improvisatory toccata, several dances for keyboard, 16 canzonas, and three sonatas for mixed combinations of winds and strings. The music is agreeable, not difficult, and of minor importance.