Violin-making in Rome, 1700−1830: new archival investigations

Abstract

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Roman production in the lutherie sector focused almost exclusively on plucked-string instruments: in the numerous workshop inventories that have come down to us, the various members of the viola family are very rare indeed, while violins are almost entirely absent. Again in Rome, the profession of violin-maker (‘violinaro’) starts to appear only in the second quarter of the 18th century; unlike the situation with the luthiers of the two previous centuries, only one workshop inventory has previously been described from this type of maker: that of the ‘violinaro’ Crescenzio Ugar (1791), which unfortunately provides very little information about the maker’s effective production. This article aims to help to fill the gap, which is all the more serious since it concerns a class of instruments that (unlike those of the plucked-string type) was the most valued from the 18th century onwards—not only from a musical point of view, but also from a purely economic perspective. I refer in particular to three previously unpublished inventories of the stock of well-known violinari operating in Rome: Francesco Emiliani (1736), Giulio Cesare Gigli (1794) and Giovanni Maria Valenzano (1826). To these we may add Magno Longo (1704), one of just two guitar-makers (‘chitarrari’) of German origin, from whose workshop we also find documentation concerning the production of violins. I also present a review of the instruments played by several Roman violinists during the 18th and 19th centuries.