Venice Research is devoted also to the research of informations concerning the musical life in Venice, the venetian makers of string instruments and their work, from 17 th . century till our times. Will be published essay and antique documents, technical and photographic files of important venetian instruments as unedited informations on Venice makers of stringed instruments.

At the end of the page, articles on Deconet, Giorgio Serafin and inventory of Montagnana shop.

Violin and Lute Makers of Venice 1640 - 1760. 

Liuteria Veneziana 1640-1760
by Stefano Pio

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“ One of the most memorable moments of my life was the first time I arrived in Santa Lucia railway station in Venice.  Stepping off the night train from Munich, armed only with a rucksack and negligible Italian, I was totally overwhelmed by the sight which confronted me.  As I recall the impact of that extraordinary view of the Grand Canal in the early morning sunshine, I feel I should somehow have sensed that this beautiful city would, at some stage in my life, have a deeper significance for me.  When I try to recall a comparable experience in the last few years, I instinctively think of that moment of anticipation when an instrument case is opened, and the glory of its contents is revealed.
In the world of violins, Cremona has often tended to get all the glory.  This is perhaps no surprise, given that it was Italy’s undisputed violin-making capital for well over a century, from the early 1600s to the middle of the 18^th century.  By comparison, Venice’s golden age of violin-making, conveniently squeezed into the first half of the 18^th century, seems almost a flash in the pan, but that is precisely what makes it so fascinating.  The key to this sudden flourishing of creative genius lies in Venice’s political and, more specifically, its musical history.
Throughout the 17^th century Venice had fought to retain its political and cultural independence, refusing to accept the authority of Rome or to ally itself with any other state.  This created a spirit of autonomy unique to the Venetians, and the city’s importance as a port brought with it great wealth and a host of different cultural influences.  Venice was also home to two of the great instrumentalist/composers of the 17^th and early 18^th centuries, Claudio Monteverdi and Antonio Vivaldi, and between 1637 and 1700 the city boasted no less than eleven theatres devoted to opera and four conservatories of music.  This level of musical activity was sufficient to support hundreds of musicians, and of course a good many capable violin makers. 
So it was hardly a coincidence that by the 1720s, Venice was home to six of the leading violin makers of the day.  This was in spite of the fact that there was no great violin-making patriarch attracting young talent to the city, as Nicolo Amati had done in Cremona in the 1640s and 1650s. 
My impressions of this glorious city are now, of course, very much tied up with the instruments it produced.  For a specialist in any field of expertise, there is no substitute for seeing the object in the flesh.  One’s memory, and by extension one’s capablilities, are made up of various first-hand experiences, all burned into the memory banks like that summer morning on the forecourt of Santa Lucia station.  In this respect, I count myself extremely lucky to have a career which affords me the opportunity to see many of the world’s great instruments, and I am delighted that three of the finest that I have had the privilege of handling are featured in this volume. 
The Montagnana bass was the highlight of my first auction as Head of Musical Instruments at Sotheby’s, and I still have an almost(!) life-size picture of the back hanging behind my desk.  The sheer quantity of thick, wine-red varnish on this instrument is astonishing, and it represents an opportunity for experts, who are perpetually examining the minutest of details, to appreciate a masterpiece on a truly grand scale.  The 1725 Carlo Tononi was sold at Sotheby’s Chicago in the year 2000, and smashed the existing world auction record for a Tononi violin.  Its stunning slab-cut back is as fine a piece of wood as I have seen on any violin, and the delicacy of the work would almost seem more typical of Cremona than Venice.  At the time, when I suggested to one of my most trusted colleagues that the work was possibly a little too fine for Tononi, he reassured me, saying “don’t worry – if it’s not a Tononi, it’s a Strad!”  But for me, the undoubted highlight of this volume is the late Sanctus Seraphin featured on page 356.  It is a violin of such purity and originality, that when it appeared on the market in early 2004, fresh from a private collection where it had lain untouched for over a century, it baffled even some of the world’s most eminent experts.  For a maker whose principal influences were Amati and Stainer, the use of a ‘long’ Stradivari model is a surprise, indeed a breath of fresh air.  Yet, for all its originality, it is unmistakeably a Seraphin, and one of the finest most of us will ever see.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed contributing to it.”

 Tim Ingles, Head  Dept.of Musical Instruments at Sotheby’s, London

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vocabolario Termini Veneziani -  Glossary of Venetian Terms
Introduzione – Introduction
La famiglia Sellas -  The Sellas Family
         Giorgio
         Matteo (I)
         Domenico
         Zuanne (I) e Magno (II)
         Zuanne (II)
         Matteo (II)
         Cristoforo
         Zuanne (III)
Cristoforo Coch
Pietro e Zuanne Railich
Zuanne e Paolo Recaldini
Marchio Vines
Nicolò Taiber  e Francesco Bognolo
Michele Straub
La famiglia Kaiser - The Kaiser Family

Matteo Goffriller
          Gli esordi – The Beginning
          La vita - His Life
          I collaboratori – His Collaborators   (Comel – Lazinger- Ongaro)
          L’opera - His work

Zuanne Curci
Francesco Gobbetti

Pietro Guarneri
        La vita - His life
        L’opera - His work

Carlo Tononi

Domenico Montagnana
        La vita - His life
        Gli amici - His Friends  (Sopran – Ongarato)
        L’opera - His work
        L’eredità – Estate

Santo Serafin
        La vita - His life
        L’opera - His work

Misure e note strumenti -  Measurements and Notes on the Instruments
Lista note - Notes
Indice dei nomi - Biographical Index
Bibliografia - Bibliography

Liuteri e Sonadori, Venezia 1750-1870 

Violin Makers and Players, Venice 1750 -1870

The book takes in consideration the world of venetian luthiers and also that one of professional players. There was a strong relationship between the two categories and the high quality of instruments crafted in Venice during this period is dued mainly to the cooperation existing between the two groups. Many makers were also professional player, for this reason I have analyzed the guild of makers as also of venetian players with their rule, structure and evolution, and I have titled my book " Liuteri e Sonadori" (Violin Makers and Player, Venice 1750 –1870). Many document drawn from Venice archives reveal a massive amount of unedited informations concerning famous makers and quite unknown ones.Thanks to them it has been possible to delineate the evolution of venetian luthiers. It is the first book that take in consideration the analyzed period in a complete and organical way and at the moment it is the more exaustive on this argument.

The surprises during the research have been many and of capital importance for the history and the evolution of violin making : I discovered for example ( see Giorgio Serafin life) that the Montagnana shop , the most celebrate and famous maker in Venice, continued the activity bearing his name for 17 years after his death. I have findt ( and included in the book ) the inventory of Montagnana shop as other unedited informations concerning his opera.

About Deconet, considered the most prolific venetian maker of string instruments during XVIII century, all documents findt seems to exclude this possibility: he was simply a traveling player not involved in the making of string instruments. So all the opera of this maker must be revised to the light of these new discovers.

Antonio Bagatella ( he wrote the famous manual "Regole per la costruzione de’ violini viole violoncelli e violoni" Rules for the making of violins, violas, cellos and double basses, in which for the first time are mathematically defined the measures and the relationships at the base of string instruments making ) was only the first of three members of the family devoted to the crafting of string instruments. The confusion that is associated with the name Bagatella stems from the existence of another Antonio Bagatella, his nephew, who was operative for many years after the death of grandfather.

The correct cronological collocation of many venetian and veneto violin makers is a problem focused and analyzed in the book: makers like Bodio, Santagiuliana, Molinari, Dollenz ,etc lived in different periods than stated by the principal encyclopedies referring to luthiers. The discrepancy is sometime very big: for example Bodio and Santagiuliana are reputed operative till 1832 but in fact they were still in activity on 1852, twenty years later.

Many makers were after totally unknown even if their importance in history of Venice violin making is capital: Novello, Indri, Santini and Ongaro just to evidentiate some of them. Important informations are included also on Bellosio, considered the last "classical" venetian maker: many instruments bearing his label are dated when he was only a child not involved in violin business. I discovered the important partnership he had with Novello, maker till now unknown but of capital importance for the activity in Bellosio shop and for the violin evolution as he remained operative till 1830 and was the connection between the classical and modern venetian luthiery.

I have furthermore analyzed the work of " botteghe" ( violin shops) in Venice: usually the organization of the work in a violin making workshop was far different from what the romantic culture wants us to believe. The presence of garzoni and giovani leaves no doubt as to their role and their master’s role in the production of instruments. Many workers could simultaneously intervene on the same instrument.When speaking of instruments built in Venice during the eighteenth century, sometimes it makes more sense to refer to the work of a bottega rather than the work of a particular author. This is the reason why very often during the years an instrument has been given different attributions reflecting the esthetics of the time or the sensibility of the judge, but pinpointing the authorship to one hand without considering the possibility that an instrument was created by more than one person.

Many of the principal makers of the age were employed to the four venetian " Ospedali" ( school music ):the office of liuter del loco, as it was commonly called, guaranteed a constant flow of income: curating the instruments of an entire orchestra was a burdensome activity which required the work of more than one person; instruments had to be picked up, continuously repaired because of breakage and ungluing from use, and sometimes instruments had to be built. The responsible violin maker also had to supply strings for the entire orchestra, keep an accounting book detailing all operations, and issue semi-annual or annual invoices (I have found and catalogued more than 110, totaling 400 pages). These invoices, or ‘policies’ as they were called at the time, were handwritten by the appointed violin maker and had to be approved by the maestro di cappella. These ‘policies’ are not only a precious source of informations for the study of an author and his work, but they are also a valid tool to gather more information on the activities of the Italian violin makers of the eighteenth century.

There is also much information that can be gleaned from an organological study on the musical practice of the sonadori of the time. This is the first time that such a long and articulate documentation on the activity of the violin makers of the eighteenth century is collected. For a reading of some the most interesting invoices, I refer to the appendix where some of them ( 40 pages) are listed in chronological order and cover the years from 1750 to 1810. One of the most famous and celebrated player of all ages was the venetian bass player Dragonetti " the Paganini of Double Bass". The Basilica of San Marco still preserves the Gaspare da Salò double bass owned by Dragonetti, also a member of the Venetian sonadori guild. While there are many well-known publications on this musician and his international career, I have added some data concerning his Venetian period and also included for the first time the colour pictures of his splendid instrument which is such an integral part of the Venetian musical history . A portrait on the birth and evolution of "La Fenice" orchestra (1810 –1870) Theatre is included: many of the components were makers of string, wind and brass instruments, confirming the strong relationship thus existing with the world of liuthery. In XIX century we can see to the birth of string makers in quite all the pricipal cities in Veneto area, like Vicenza, Padova, Verona , Gorizia and Trieste. Also the principal makers existing in those cities ( Pedrinelli, Chiocchi, Pelizon, Corain, Dollez, Cardi, Marcolongo etc. ) are included in the book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Hospitals as Musical Institutions of the City
Domenico Dragonetti and His Gasparo da Salò Double Bass
Liuteri and Sonadori
Bagatella and De Luca
Michele Deconet, the Traveling Violinist
Giorgio Serafin and His Bottega ‘alla Cremona’
Bellosio and His Students: the End of Classic Venetian Violin Making Art
Marco Antonio Cerin
Zuanne and Ignazio Ongaro
Domenico Busan, Liuter and Sonador, Friend of the Ongaros
The Two Santinis
The Molinari Family
Antonio Indri: Violin Maker and Entrepeneur
The Production of Musical Instruments in Venice between 1810 and 1850
Giobatta Bodio, Violin Maker and Musician
Giacinto Santagiuliana
The La Fenice Theatre 1810-1870: the Birth of a Modern Orchestra
Luigi Fabris: the Venetian Violin Maker of the Nineteenth Century
Antonio Pelizon, Wood Worker and Violin Maker
Antonio Pedrinelli, Noble ‘Canoviano’
Gaetano Chiocchi
Giovanni and Giuseppe Dollenz and Vincenzo Corain: Nineteenth Century Violin Makers from Trieste
Luigi Cardi, Violin Maker from Verona
Appendix
Notes

The book, 400 pages, with leather bound, is priced 230 Euro plus shipping expenses. The order, must be sendt by E-mail (stepio@tin.it ) - by fax: Italy + 041 52 36 545 – or by post to: Venice Research - S. Croce 2165 – Venice 30100 – Italy. Please mention in the order the address where you want I send the book

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Michele Deconet the Travelling Violinist

Some dealers prefer not to take in consideration that Deconet was not a violin maker and probably never made one instrument. This approach is probably dued to commercial reasons, as they are involved in sales and certifications of instruments attribuited to him. If you prefer to believe in documents stored in Venice archives instead of opinions and interested comments, I invite you to read the following piece. By the way, the auction record “Deconet violin, Venice 1759” should have been made when Deconet was outside of Venice for a 3 years long journey, as declared by himself in one original document stored here in Venice…

A Venetian violinist: Luigi Enrico Ferro and the Vivaldi renaissance.

Il Teatro “La Fenice” 1810 – 1870: nascita di un’orchestra moderna.

The “La Fenice” Theatre1810 – 1870: the Birth of a Modern Orchestra

The life of Giorgio Serafin and His Bottega alla Cremona
the following piece deals with the life of the little known venetian violin maker Giorgio Serafin and his relationship with Domenico Montagnana. Do you know that Giorgio Serafin used the name of Montagnana after his death for 17 years? Hope you will enjoy reading these unedited informations drawn from the book: "Violin makers and players, Venice 1750 -1870".

PS: all documents here mentioned have been findt in Venice archives and their placement is mentioned in the Notes of the my books.

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