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Abstract: New information regarding Francesco Morelli, a painter who until now has been known only as Giovanni Baglione’s master, has made it possible to gain an insight into his work and his character, and to open a window on the landscape of the workshops of ‘ordinary’ painters in Rome at the close of the 16th century but above all, it has revealed the importance that Morelli’s workshop had in forming the network of contacts between artists, merchants and patrons with which Caravaggio made contact on his arrival in Rome. The present study shows how Francesco Morelli, the son of a stonemason from the town of Settignano, belonged to that group of late mannerist painters who, toward the end of the 16th century, worked for the profitable and inexhaustible market for devotional paintings. The numerous contracts which have been discovered have indicated that his workshop, close to the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, was one of the most active in the ‘mass-production’ market of art, and that he counted among his clients noblemen of the area like Fabrizio Naro and Curzio Vittori, important clergymen like the franciscan Angelo Sermignani, and artisans like the barber Patrizio Sanctipetri. As well as altar-pieces, Morelli specialized in series’ of so-called Illustrious men. Morelli’s most enthusiastic clients could be found among the Dominicans from the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, who on numerous occasions acquired series’ of Illustrious men of the type owned by the erudite Spaniard Alonso Chacón. It has also been possible to identify some of the painter’s professional acquaintances: Morelli knew Antiveduto Gramatica, and probably had business dealings with him. An important figure in his workshop was the Sienese painter Ventura Salimbeni with whom, in 1588. One of the most important documents to have been found during this research is connected to Baglione, and is the renewal of the apprenticeship contract which had been drawn up the previous year between Morelli and the mother of the young painter, Tommasa Grampi, on the 18th of January 1582, and which at last provides a date for the beginning of his artistic activity, and the duration of his apprenticeship under Morelli. Baglione was not, of course, the only student in Morelli’s workshop; another important contract of «accomodatio famulii», which came to light during archival investigations, has revealed that Vittorio Travagni, friend of Caravaggio at least until 1600, was also apprenticed to Morelli. These notable discoveries, along with the confirmation that Tommaso Salini was also in close contact with Morelli, who had married his mother, Giulia Boschi on the 26th of November 1591, have made it possible to uncover the central role that Morelli played in forming and encouraging the careers of almost all of the artists who came into contact with Caravaggio in his early years in Rome. With regard to Salini, new and unpublished information has been discovered which reveals that his family was not from Florence as was previously believed, but rather from Settignano, the same town as the family of Francesco Morelli, and that he lived in the Trastevere quarter, which is confirmed by the discovery of his certificate of baptism, a document which has finally made it possible to confirm his exact date of birth as 21st November 1577.