Il Conte Cozio di Salabue, Liuteria e Collezionismo in Piemonte

Anyone interested in the history of violin making knows that Count Cozio of Salabue played a determinant role in conserving and promoting the old violin making traditions. The fact that we can admire the tools and drawings used by Antonio Stradivari, that we have available vital information about the violin makers of the past and their work, above all that we can still admire extraordinary violins made in Piedmont, are all thanks to Ignazio Alessandro Cozio.

So we seized the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his birth as an opportunity to examine the enormous contribution he made to violin making and its history, but also to revive studies about him. And also to cast light onto another aspect that is not always properly recognised: that he was the promoter of a great Piedmontese School of violin making. By collecting splendid violins, violas and cellos, commissioning a master like Guadagnini to make new instruments, in a word creating a vital artistic and cultural substratum, he effectively laid the foundations on which that school could flourish. And in the centuries to follow that art was reinterpreted by other exceptional violin makers.

The best way to remember such an important protagonist of violin making was to set up an exhibition that brought back to Monferrato some of the most precious instruments that had belonged to his collection, like the violin by Francesco Stradivari (known, indeed, as “ex Salabue”) and the two Giovanni Battista Guadagnini instruments from the Turin period, together with instruments made by the most representative violin makers of Piedmont.

The book presents the results of a unique exhibition, that boasted an absolute wealth of instruments: for the first time, three centuries of violin making are reviewed in full, through 55 instruments of the Piedmontese School, including some very rare specimens.

Some of the makers present: Cappa, Catenari, Celoniato, Genova, Sorsana and the Guadagnini family; D’Espine, Marchetti, Melegari, Pressenda and Rocca, Fagnola, Genovese, Guerra, Oddone and Morano.

Book details:
168 pages, 24 x 32 cm, bound with hard cover
Dual-language edition: English and Italian

Available product forms