Giovanni Paolo Maggini (c. 1580 - c. 1630), was a

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

born in

Botticino Botticino ( Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' (commune or municipality) in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy. The ''comune'' was created in 1928 by the union of the former ''comuni'' of Botticino Mattina and Botticino Sera which toda ...

(

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Maggini was a pupil of the most important violin maker of the

n school,

Gasparo da Salò Gasparo da Salò (20 May 154214 April 1609) is the name given to Gasparo Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and an expert double bass player. Around 80 of his instruments are known to have survived to the present day: violins (small ...

. Maggini's early instruments are now considered very desirable because, despite their apparent naive craftsmanship, they are wonderful instruments. They first tended to be modified copies of his teacher's instruments. But once established on his own around the year 1606, Maggini developed his skills and experimented with his designs until he achieved a level of expertise that is still highly regarded. His violas, like those of his master, are regarded as the best in the world for the rich deep sound and power of tone. The only known pupil of Maggini is

Valentino Siani Valentino Siani (c.1595–1672) was an Italian violinmaker who worked in Brescia and Florence. He was a pupil of Giovanni Paolo Maggini Giovanni Paolo Maggini (c. 1580 - c. 1630), was a luthier born in Botticino (Brescia), Italy. Maggini was ...

, who worked with him c. 1610–1620, before he moved to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and started his own business. Maggini succumbed to the

Italian plague of 1629–31 Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

that also took another important early luthier,

Girolamo Amati Girolamo Amati (1561–1630) was an Italian luthier, active from 1580 to 1630. Biography Born in Cremona, Girolamo was the youngest son of Andrea Amati and brother of Antonio Amati. Girolamo worked, probably from 1575, with his brother, in ...

. This fact arouses suspicions that some of Maggini's later works are perhaps creations from a different maker since tests reveal that some instruments bearing a genuine Maggini label are from trees living after Maggini's death. The

National Music Museum The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments (NMM) is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the University ...

has two Maggini instruments in its collection. One is a bass

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

. The other is a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

. The 18th-century European violin virtuoso-composer

Ivan Mane Jarnović Ivan Mane Jarnović ( it, Giovanni Mane Giornovichi; 26 October 1747 – 23 November 1804) was a violinist and composer during the 18th century, often said to have been Italian but whose family was of Ragusan (today in Croatia) origin. There is n ...

played a Maggini violin. A genuine Maggini violin ranges in value from $200,000 to $2,000,000.

Pupils

* Antonio Mariani

References

External links

Margaret Huggins. ''Gio: Paolo Maggini, his life and work'' (1892)
1580s births 1630s deaths Italian luthiers Businesspeople from Brescia {{Italy-music-bio-stub