Robert Valentine was an English composer, recorder player, oboist, and violinist who migrated to Rome and became a naturalized Italian. He is known for his vast number of recorder compositions. Valentine is well recognized for his vast body of work for the recorder, as well as his status as a highly professional performer on the instrument. He was also a violinist and played the oboe. Instrumental compositions became his forte. They have a selection of sonata collections and trio sonatas, as well as several concerto grosso cases. His early style was somewhat similar to Arcangelo Corelli's, but as demonstrated by his later collections of sonatas written in Northern Europe, he eventually moved into the Galante style. His compositions became common in the early 18th-century amateur market for flute and recorder music, which flourished in England at a period when the recorder was already popular in concert play. Valentine's importance was noted by John Hawkins in his General History of the Science and Practice of Music: Volume I, published in 1776.