Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori (4 May 1655, Padua, Venice — 27 January 1731, Florence, Tuscany) was an Italian inventor and maker of keyboard stringed instruments, such as harpsichords, clavichords, spinets, and early fortepianos. Cristofori is the earliest known creator of the piano's hammer action. Name variations: Cristofali, Christofori, Cristofani, "il Burtulo." No reliable sources exist for Cristofori's early life and his apprenticeship. In 1688, a thirty-three-year-old Bartolomeo was hired by Ferdinando De' Medici, Prince of the independent state of Tuscany and a renowned patron of music. Cristofori settled in Florence as a full-time stipendiary at the Medici court — a privileged position that came with housing and covered all expenses. (Some researchers argue it explains why Bartolomeo wasn't a member of Università di Por San Piero e dei Fabbricanti guild, where most other Florentinian harpsichord-makers registered.) He was responsible for tuning and maintaining harpsichords and other instruments, working alongside over 100 artisans at Galleria dei Lavori. Cristofori also restored numerous antique harpsichords by Girolamo Zenti and other makers in Medici's extensive collection. In 1690, Bartolomeo Cristofori established his private workshop on Canto degli Alberti in the parish of San Remigio, working alongside Giovanni Ferrini and a few other assistants. He created many unusual and novel instruments, including an "oval spinet" (virginal with longer strings in the middle of the case), a "spinnetone da orchestra" (multi-choired spinet disposed 1×8'/1×4' for theatrical use), and "cembalo rito in piedi," an upright harpsichord. The earliest mention of Cristofori's hammer action, which subsequently led to creation of the fortepiano, is dated 1700 when Medici's inventory listed one of his new instruments as Arpicimbalo di Bartolomeo Cristofori di nuova inventione, che fa' il piano, e il forte ("Newly invented harpsichord by Bartolomeo Cristofori, which makes the piano and the forte"). Throughout the XVIII century, Cristofori's name was largely forgotten and overlooked by organologists, as most researchers credited the invention of fortepiano mechanical action to a German maker, Gottfried Silbermann (1683—1753).