Luigi Tarisio (Fontaneto d'Agogna (Novara) - 21 June 1796 – Milan - 1 November 1854) was an Italian

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 regu ...

dealer and collector.

Early life

He was of humble parents and is said to have trained as a carpenter, playing violin as a hobby.

Career

He developed an interest in violins themselves, and as a connoisseur with a natural talent for business he began to acquire and resell some of the many fine instruments that were lying unused in the towns and villages of northern Italy. From 1827 to 1846, he brought a large number of genuine

Amati Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò ...

Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, '' Stradivarius'', as well as the collo ...

and

Guarneri The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati an ...

violins from Italy to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. His first journey to

, in 1827, was evidently profitable for him and for the dealers there, who gave him every encouragement. In 1828 he made his greatest coup, acquiring a number of violins from Count Cozio of Salabue, including a 1716

in unused condition. This violin was Tarisio's treasure, and as he spoke of it on every visit to Paris but never actually brought it with him; it came to be known as the '

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

'. Tarisio searched indefatigably for violins and had a true love of them. The novelist Charles Reade, who knew him, wrote:

"...'The man's whole soul was in fiddles. He was a great dealer, but a greater amateur, for he had gems by him no money would buy'.

There was an insatiable demand in northern Europe for what nobody wanted or appreciated in the south, and the absence of much competition gave him unique opportunities. By bringing his stock to Paris, the only place where the art of restoration was at all advanced, he rescued many great instruments for posterity.

Legacy

After his death it was the turn of

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (7 October 1798 – 19 March 1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. His workshop made over 3,000 instruments. Early life Vuillaume was born in Mirecourt, where his father and gr ...

, the leading Parisian dealer, to make the greatest purchase of his life. At a small farm near

Fontaneto d'Agogna Fontaneto d'Agogna is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Novara. It takes its name from the Agogna stream. Fontaneto d'Agogna borders the ...

, where Tarisio's relatives lived, were the six finest violins of the collection, including the celebrated 'Messiah'; and in a dingy attic in Milan, where Tarisio's body has been found, were no fewer than 24 Stradivaris and 120 other Italian masterpieces.It is not certain that the entire collection was sold by the heirs of Tarisio. The auction house for valuable instruments, founded in 1999 in New York and London, is called Tarisio.Tarisio Auctionhouse
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Biography

* The Violin Hunter: The Life Story of Luigi Tarisio the Great Collector of Violins by William Alexander Silverman

References

* The Hill Collection of Musical Instruments, David D. Boyden, Oxford University Press, London, 1969 * * *

Walter Hamma Walter Hamma (22 September 1916 – 11 August 1988) was a German violin maker. His father, Fridolin Hamma, was an influential violin maker. Walter Hamma was pupil of the violin making school in Mittenwald 1933-1935. He worked with Ferdinand Ja ...

, ''Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst'', Wilhelmshaven 1993, * * Tarisio and ‘Le Messie’ : Antoine Vidal, Bowed Instruments (Vol. I) * W.E. Hill & Sons, Antonio Stradivari: His Life & Work, monograph on the “Salabue” Strad and finally Farga, Violins & Violinists. * The Hill Collection of Musical Instruments, David D. Boyden, Oxford University Press, London, 1969 * Antonio Stradivari – Henley * 1690 &1716 Tuscan & Le Messie – Hill * Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari - Hebert K. Goodkind * How Many Strads – E. Doring * Antonio Stradivari - Charles Beare * Italian Violin Makers – Walter Henley * * Les Luthiers Parisiens aux XIX et XX siecles Tom 3 "Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume et sa famille : Nicolas, Nicolas-François et Sébastien" by Sylvette Milliot published by Edition les Amis des la Musique 2006 * Jost Thöne: J.B.Vuillaume, Bildband mit originalgrossen Abbildungen, Bocholt 1998. * Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume - Violins and Violinists Series of Violin Makers published by William Lewis and Son * ''Les Trésors de la Lutherie Française du XIXe siècle'', Paris c 1992 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarisio, Luigi 1790 births 1854 deaths Collectors Italian musicians Violin dealers 19th-century Italian musicians