Bartolomeo Cristofori: Francesco Scipione, Marchese di Maffei, Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, Stewart Pollens, Ebony, Oval Spinet, Spinettone, Virginals - Tapa blanda

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (May 4, 1655 – January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano. The available source materials on Cristofori''s life include his birth and death records, two wills, the bills he submitted to his employers, and a single interview done by Scipione Maffei. From the latter, we have both Maffei''s notes and the published journal article. Cristofori was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice. Nothing is known of his early life. A tale is told that he served as an apprentice to the great violin maker Nicolò Amati, based on the appearance in a 1680 census record of a Christofaro Bartolomei" living in Amati''s house in Cremona. However, as Stewart Pollens points out, this person cannot be Bartolomeo Cristofori, since the census records an age of 13, whereas Cristofori according to his baptismal record would have been 25 at the time. "