Giuseppe Donati (2 December 1836 – 14 February 1925) was the inventor of the classical ocarina, a ceramic wind instrument based on the principle of a

Helmholtz resonator Helmholtz resonance or wind throb is the phenomenon of air resonance in a cavity, such as when one blows across the top of an empty bottle. The name comes from a device created in the 1850s by Hermann von Helmholtz, the ''Helmholtz resonator'', wh ...

. Donati was born in Budrio. Legend has it that he created his first "little goose" ("ocarina" in Italian dialect) in 1853, aged 17, whilst still working as a brickmaker. His first ocarina-making workshop was in his hometown of Budrio. When he moved to larger premises in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

in 1878, a fellow musician of the Gruppo Ocarinistico,

Cesare Vicinelli Cesare, the Italian version of the given name Caesar, may refer to: Given name * Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (1738–1794), an Italian philosopher and politician * Cesare Airaghi (1840–1896), Italian colonel * Cesare Arzelà (1847–1912), It ...

, continued the Budrio workshop. Donati died, aged 88, in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

External links

Budrio Ocarina Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donati, Giuseppe 1836 births 1925 deaths Italian musical instrument makers 19th-century Italian inventors 19th-century Italian musicians Ocarina makers Brickmakers