Bartolomeo Cristofori

Italian engineer

• Born: May 4, 1655
• Birthplace: Padua, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: January 27, 1731
• Place of death: Florence (now in Italy)

A musical-instrument maker famous for his ingenuity, Cristofori set out to design a new instrument by improving the sound and mechanism of the harpsichord. He is credited with having invented the piano in Florence around 1700.

Primary field: Music

Primary invention: Piano

Early Life

Bartolomeo Cristofori (bahr-toh-loh-MEH-oh krihs-TOH-foh-ree) was born to Francesco Cristofori and Laura Papafava in Padua in the Republic of Venice in 1655. He was christened in the parish of San Luca two days later, and his godparents were Camillo Chinoni and Pani Lina, maid to Lady Laura Papafava. Cristofori remained quite close to his mother’s family, as is confirmed by a reference to a Roberto Papafava in Cristofori’s second will. The name also occurs in one of Cristofori’s letters sent from Florence in May, 1693.

Almost nothing is known of Cristofori’s family life and his early years in Padua except that he had a younger brother, Pietro Filippo, whose christening record dating to May, 1657, proves that the family surname was Cristofori, and not Christofani or Cristofali, as Cristofori has at times been referred to. Even though there is no record of where his workshop was located, in his hometown Cristofori must have acquired considerable notoriety as an instrument maker. Indeed, while traveling to Venice to attend the carnival in 1688, Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, a humanist, patron, and lover of music, stopped at Padua and decided to recruit Cristofori, who agreed to the appointment at a salary of twelve scudi per month. A young man of thirty-three, Cristofori moved to the court of Ferdinando in Florence in May of that year and lodged and worked as harpsichord maker for the prince in the Galleria dei Lavori of the Uffizi.

Life’s Work

Cristofori’s activity as harpsichord maker at the court is well recorded, partly thanks to the many bills Cristofori submitted to his employer. It is known that on August 15, 1690, he was paid 1,036 lire for an oval spinet (a harpsichord with the longest strings in the middle of the case). This and other instruments built by Cristofori in the 1690’s (for example, an upright harpsichord currently held in the museum of the Luigi Cherubini conservatory in Florence) are all documented in an inventory, dated to 1700, and show Cristofori’s versatility as instrument maker.

The above-mentioned inventory also alludes to “a large Arpicembalo [harp-harpsichord] by Bartolomeo Cristofori, of new invention, that produces soft and loud.” This is the first reference to the piano, on which Cristofori had been working since 1698. The limitations of Cristofori’s piano were, however, all too obvious. Rather expensive to make, the instrument had unsophisticated hammer heads, and its range was a mere four octaves. All this meant that news of its existence did not spread rapidly, and only in 1711 did Francesco Scipione Maffei report on the new invention, which the Italian scholar had been able to examine two years earlier. In an article published in the Giornale de’letterati d’Italia of Venice, Maffei provided a thorough description of the new instrument illustrated with a diagram of the mechanism. Though he acknowledged that the sound of the piano was felt to be too soft and dull, Maffei recognized the importance of Cristofori’s new instrument. He further reported that, by 1711, Cristofori had already built three pianos.

Cristofori was then at the peak of his career when his patron Ferdinando died on October 30, 1713. There is evidence that Cristofori continued to work for the prince’s father, Cosimo III, and not merely as custodian of Cosimo’s musical collection—as it is very often wrongly believed—but as instrument maker, or strumentaio. Proof of Cristofori’s continuing activity after Prince Ferdinando’s death is given by an inventory of the instruments owned by the Florentine court, dated 1732, which shows the steps taken by Cristofori to enlarge the musical collection of the Medici. The three surviving pianos built by Cristofori in 1720, 1722, and 1726—all signed by“Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, inventor,” as a Latin inscription proudly proclaims—show that he endeavored to improve the quality of his pianos and confirm that Cristofori was active until practically the end of his life. In his last years, Cristofori owned houses in Florence, first in San Remigio and subsequently in San Iacopo tra’ Fossi, both locations not far from the Uffizi. The only known portrait of Cristofori also dates from his Florentine period. Purchased by G. Schünemann for a Berlin museum in 1934 but destroyed during the course of World War II, it was painted in 1726 and portrays the inventor standing next to a piano against the backdrop of the city of Florence. Apart from the above-mentioned pianos, a total of six surviving instruments (oval spinets, harpsichords, and a double bass) are attributed to Cristofori. They are all held in museums across Europe and the United States.

Toward the end of his life, Cristofori wrote two wills. In the first, dated January 24, 1728, he bequeathed all his possessions to one of his most conspicuous pupils, Giovanni Ferrini, famous for making a harpsichord once owned by Elisabetta Farnese, queen of Spain. A second will superseding the first followed on March 23, 1729. In it, Cristofori bequeathed his possessions to Anna and Margherita del Mela—sisters of Domenico del Mela, builder of the first upright piano—who had assisted him during his illnesses, and to his niece Laura, daughter of Elisabetta Cristofori. Cristofori died in Florence on January 27, 1732, and was buried in the cemetery of Santa Croce. On the inventor’s death record in the church of San Iacopo tra’ Fossi (demolished in 1847), the date of his death reads instead “1731” because the document follows the Florentine calendar in which the year began on March 25, thus causing an apparent one-year discrepancy for some dates. Among Cristofori’s Italian pupils, aside from Ferrini, were Gerolamo da Firenze and Gherardo da Padova. Neither was, however, able to match the skills of his master. More talented were instead the German C. G. Schröter and Gottfried Silbermann.

Impact

Irrespective of whether Cristofori was fully aware of earlier attempts to make keyboard instruments with struck strings, he was the first person to design the modern piano as it is now known. According to his contemporary witnesses, the new instrument, made of cypress wood, would improve the quality of the harpsichord, “which does not wholly convey human feelings.” Building on his expertise as harpsichord maker, Cristofori succeeded in designing a piano in which the hammers strike the strings but do not remain in contact with them because this would dampen their vibrations. Although Cristofori’s piano was made with thin strings, it was louder and more powerful than the harpsichord. Cristofori continued to improve the quality of his pianos until the end of his life.

In spite of his major achievement, Cristofori’s reputation went into eclipse shortly after his death. Paradoxically, Maffei’s journal article of 1711 contributed to Cristofori’s obscurity. Translated into Latin and published in Joachim Adlung’s Musica mechanica organoedi (1767; music for organ), Maffei’s piece inspired the German Gottfried Silbermann to build a piano that overshadowed Cristofori’s work. For over one hundred years, Silbermann was credited with the invention of the piano until scholars working at the turn of the twentieth century (most notably Leo Puliti and A. Kraus) finally corrected this error.

Bibliography

Dolge, Alfred. Pianos and Their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano. New York: Dover, 1972. Originally published in 1911, this is one of the first attempts among English-speaking scholars to restore Cristofori’s role in the history of piano making.

Good, Edward. “What Did Cristofori Call His Invention?” Early Music 33, no. 1 (2005): 95-97. A short discussion on the meaning of the word Arpicembalo (harp-harpsichord), as Cristofori’s new invention was referred to in the inventory of instruments made by him prior to 1700.

Parakilas, James, ed. Piano Roles: Three Hundred Years of Life with the Piano. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. A beautifully illustrated collection of essays that pays equal attention to historical, artistic, and technological issues related to the piano. Appropriately, it takes Cristofori as its starting point and analyzes the evolution of piano making and performing in the last three centuries. Bibliography, index.

Pollens, Stewart. The Early Pianoforte. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. A scholarly survey on the history of the piano back to 1440, it devotes several chapters to the work of Cristofori. It includes thorough research on the Italian and Latin sources to Cristofori’s life, which are meticulously translated into English. Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Rimbault, Edward Francis. The Pianoforte: Its Origin, Progress and Construction. London: Robert Cocks, 1860. Although Rimbault’s contribution has long been superseded, it is still of much interest. It constitutes a good example of scholarly work on the piano before the invention was formally attributed to Cristofori. Plates.