According to a document dating from about 150 years after his death, he was a member of the Grossi family but took the name of his birth city, Viadana, when he entered the order of the Minor Observants prior to 1588.
[1] Though there is no contemporary evidence, it has been claimed that he studied with Costanzo Porta,[1] becoming choirmaster at the cathedral in Mantua by 1594.
[1] For three years, from 1614 to 1617, he held a position in his religious order which covered the entire province of Bologna (including Ferrara, Mantua and Piacenza).
[1] Viadana is important in the development of the early Baroque technique of basso continuo, and its notational method, known as figured bass.
Agostino Agazzari in 1607 published a treatise describing how to interpret the new figured bass, though it is clear that many performers had by this time already learned the new method, at least in the most progressive musical centers in Italy.