Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano

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

Stewart Pollens (Author)

9781107480230, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 September 2019

399 pages, 148 b/w illus.
21.5 x 28 x 2.5 cm, 1.2 kg

This is the first comprehensive study of the life and work of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the Paduan-born harpsichord maker and contemporary of Antonio Stradivari, who is credited with having invented the pianoforte around the year 1700 while working in the Medici court in Florence. Through thorough analysis of documents preserved in the State Archive of Florence, Pollens has reconstructed, in unprecedented technical detail, Cristofori's working life between his arrival in Florence in 1688 and his death in 1732. This book will be of interest to pianists, historians of the piano, musicologists, museum curators and conservators, as well as keyboard instrument makers, restorers, and tuners.

Introduction
1. Bartolomeo Cristofori in Padua
2. Cristofori in Florence
3. Cristofori's extant instruments
4. Musical life in Florence in Cristofori's time
5. Cristofori's influence
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Keyboard instruments [AVRG], Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles [AVR], Music [AV]