Bartolomeo Cristofori - Assessments of Cristofori

Assessments of Cristofori

Cristofori was evidently admired and respected in his own lifetime for his work on the piano. On his death, a theorbo player at the Medici court named Niccolò Susier wrote in his diary:

1731, 27th, Bartolomeo Crisofani, called Bartolo Padovano, died, famous instrument maker to the Most Serene Grand Prince Ferdinando of fond memory, and he was a skillful maker of keyboard instruments, and also the inventor of the pianoforte, that is known through all Europe, and who served His Majesty the King of Portugal, who paid two hundred gold louis d'or for the said instruments, and he died, as has been said, at the age of eighty-one years.

An anonymous 18th century music dictionary, found in the library of the composer Padre G. B. Martini, says of him

Christofori Bartolomeo of Padua died in Florence was the famous harpsichord maker, a distinguished restorer rendering even better good instruments made by other past masters and he was also the inventor of harpsichords with hammers, which produce a different quality of sound both on account of the hammer striking the chord and the completely different internal structure of the body of the instrument, not visible from the outside the best instruments that he made were for Ferdinando de' Medici Great Prince of Tuscany, his protector and son of the Grand Duke Cosimo III.

After his death, however, Cristofori's reputation went into decline. As Stewart Pollens has documented, in late 18th century France it was believed that the piano had been invented not by Cristofori but by the German builder Gottfried Silbermann. Silbermann was in fact an important figure in the history of the piano, but his instruments relied almost entirely on Cristofori for their design. Later scholarship (notably by Leo Puliti) only gradually corrected this error.

In the second half of the 20th century, Cristofori's instruments were studied with care, as part of the general increase in interest in early instruments that developed in this era (see authentic performance). The modern scholars who have studied Cristofori's work in detail tend to express their admiration in the strongest terms; thus the New Grove encyclopedia describes him as having possessed "tremendous ingenuity"; Stewart Pollens says "All of Cristofori's work is startling in its ingenuity"; and the early-instrument scholar Grant O'Brien has written "The workmanship and inventiveness displayed by the instruments of Cristofori are of the highest order and his genius has probably never been surpassed by any other keyboard maker of the historical period ... I place Cristofori shoulder to shoulder with Antonio Stradivarius."

Cristofori is also given credit for originality in inventing the piano. While it is true that there had been earlier, crude attempts to make piano-like instruments, it is not clear that these were even known to Cristofori. The piano is thus an unusual case in which an important invention can be ascribed unambiguously to a single individual, who brought it to an unusual degree of perfection all on his own.