Over the centuries Naples enjoyed the status of a European capital, attracting immigrants not only from around the Italian peninsula, but also from around Europe and the Mediterranean. Among the largest foreign communities to settle in Naples were the French and the Swiss. Guglielmo Luigi Cottrau was born as Guillaume-Louis Cottrau on 10 August 1797 in Paris and died on 31 October 1847 in Naples.

He was a noted Franco-Neapolitan composer and music publisher who immigrated to Naples with his father Joseph Cottrau, who formerly served as Secretary General of the Navy in France, and who served as a field marshal under Joachim Murat, the interim King of Naples appointed by Napoleon during the French invasion and occupation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.