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,...