This is the first comprehensive historical and technological study of the pianoforte based on important primary source material. Most histories of the piano begin with its invention by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence in about 1700: this study begins with the earliest fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscript sources and extends over Cristofori's rediscovery of the principle of the hammer action, the early exportation of Florentine pianofortes to prominent European courts, and the building of copies of these instruments in Portugal, Spain and Germany. Technical information is presented in...

Along with the instruments of Stradivari and del Gesu, the violins of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini have long been favored by professional musicians for their responsiveness, tonal quality, and projection. Originally published in 1949 in a very limited edition, this study remains the most comprehensive account of G. B. Guadagnini's work and the legacy carried on by his descendants.
Author Ernest N. Doring conducted painstaking research into eighteenth-century documentation of Guadagnini's itinerant life. He traces the craftsman's progress from Piacenza, Milan, Cremona, and Parma to Turin,...

This is the first book to combine museum-based conservation techniques with practical instructions on the maintenance, repair, adjustment, and tuning of virtually every type of historical musical instrument. As one of the world's leading conservators of musical instruments, Stewart Pollens gives practical advice on the handling, storage, display and use of historic musical instruments in museums and other settings, and provides technical information on such wide-ranging subjects as acoustics, cleaning, climate control, corrosion, disinfestation, conservation ethics, historic stringing...

The first comprehensive study of Bartolomeo Cristofori's working life, featuring detailed technical documentation about his instruments.