Cristofori

Biography

Cristofori is presented as a figure of real mechanical genius whose first model, dated 1707, included a jack that permitted an escapement, although a faulty one, along with a silken cord interlocked crosswise to catch the falling hammer shank and facilitate repetition. By his 1720 model he had devised a positive-acting escapement and replaced the unreliable silk cords with a rigid back check for catching the hammer. The author states that Cristofori thereby laid down all the fundamental requirements of a pianoforte action that all later inventors had to respect in their own improvements. His work forms the basis of the later "Cristofori-Backers" action lineage, which Americus Backers refined in 1776 into the model that became the foundation of the English grand action. Cristofori is named in the introductory passage of this volume as the inventor of the piano, the foundational act from which the author traces the subsequent history of piano invention and construction. The text gives no further biographical detail about him beyond this single credit, using him as the starting point of a lineage of inventors and constructors that continues through Sebastian Erard and Theodore Steinway. No dates, nationality, or additional facts about his life or work are supplied in this passage. From Spillane (1890): Bartolommeo Cristofori, of Padua, was a harpsichord-maker credited by A. J. Hipkins and other historians as the inventor of the pianoforte, with the date fixed at 1709. In 1708 he was appointed custodian of the musical instruments belonging to Prince Ferdinand dei Medici, a Florentine noble, and the following year exhibited four pianofortes, described in a 1711 Italian document by the Florentine scholar Marchese Scipione Maffei, published in the Giornale with a diagram of his action principle. Rival claims for Marius (France) and Schröeter (Germany) were advanced but are regarded as unproven against Cristofori's priority. Some sources mistakenly rendered his name as 'Cristofali,' an error later corrected from inscriptions on surviving instruments. Before his death in 1731, Cristofori solved the problem of hammer rebound in his action and made further improvements strengthening and enlarging the case, substantially anticipating later principles of construction. He died comparatively poor.

Highlights

• His first model (1707) featured a jack permitting an escapement, though faulty, and a silk cord for repetition
• His 1720 model introduced a positive-acting escapement and a rigid back check in place of the unreliable silk cords
• The text credits him with laying down all the fundamental requirements of a pianoforte action that later inventors had to observe
• Credited with inventing the piano
• Credited by A. J. Hipkins and others as inventor of the pianoforte, with the date fixed at 1709
• Appointed custodian of Prince Ferdinand dei Medici's musical instruments in 1708, then exhibited four pianofortes in 1709
• Solved the problem of hammer rebound in his action and made further improvements before his death in 1731

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 87; Vol. II (1913).

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 15, 16, 17, 19.

Public domain.