Cristofori and the Medici

Cristofori	Ferdinando dei Medici

Unfortunately not much is known of the life of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the piano. It is known that he came from Padova, and that he worked for the Medici, specifically for Prince Ferdinando, who was a music lover. He was a member of the Prince's 'Virtuosi da Camera', a group of composers and musicians. Perhaps, then, Cristofori was a musician who took to inventing and building new instruments. Three of his instruments from the last decade of the 17th Century, all owned by the Medici court, survive . They are all beautifully made with precious woods. In the bills that Cristofori submitted to the Medici, we know that he employed a cabinet maker, who was probably responsible for this fine casework.

The earliest dated instrument (1690) by Cristofori came to light very recently, it turned up in a pile of instruments abandoned in a Palazzo once owned by the antiquarian Bardini in Florence. An incredible find. It was known from Cristofori's bills to the Medici that he had built two oval spinets, and the second one, the beautiful instrument in ebony and cypress dated 1693 is in the collection of the University of Leipsig. The 1690 spinet is now part of the exhibition of instruments that once belonged to the Medici in the "Galleria dell'Accademia" in Florence. It is the object of study that forms part of a project linking the Florence collection with that of Leipsig, funded by the European Union. As part of this study I prepared a millimetric CAD plan of the instrument (download). It was decided not to bring the instrument to playing condition, but instead to make a playing copy, to bring Cristofori's invention back to life again. This instrument has now been built and is on display next to the original. See the oval spinet page.

The 1693 oval spinet

The 1690 oval spinet

The copy of the 1690 spinet

The ebony harpsichord

Also in the "Galleria dell'Accademia" is Cristofori's ebony harpsichord. It is undated, but known to have been built in this early period at the Medici court. The entry for the ebony harpsichord in the new catalogue for the collection, "La musica e i suoi strumenti", is based on Kerstin Schwarz's study of this instrument.

The other instruments by Cristofori, date from the 1720's, after the death of Cristofori's patron, Ferdinando. They are very different in style from the earlier instruments. They look quite utilitarian. Instead of the precious woods, they are in poplar with battons applied at intervals around the case. The insides, however hold many surprises. Three of the instruments have Cristofori's pianoforte mechanism. This was invented in 1700, but in 20 years Cristofori had continued to refine it (go to the Cristofori page in the instrument gallery for more on the Cristofori piano). All five of these instruments, two harpsichords and three pianos, have a revolutionary structure, with the soundboard fixed to an inner bentside instead of the outer case wall. Kerstin Schwarz was the first person to investigate the structure of the two harpsichords and the pianoforte in Leipsig. Her work on these Cristofori instruments will be published shortly in the University of Leipsig's journal "Scripta Artium". A shorter version in English was given as a paper for a conference in Cluny (France). Download the cluny paper.

A booklet on Cristofori produced as part of the EU project