Luigi Tarisio

Luigi Tarisio (c. 1790 – October 1854) was an Italian violin dealer and collector.

He was born at Fontaneto d'Agogna, near Novara, Piedmont, of humble parents and is said to have trained as a carpenter, playing violin as a hobby. 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. His first journey to Paris, in 1827, was evidently profitable for him and for the dealers there, who gave him every encouragement. In the same year he made his greatest coup, acquiring a number of violins from Count Cozio of Salabue, including a 1716 Stradivari 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'.

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

After his death it was the turn of Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, the leading Parisian dealer, to make the greatest purchase of his life. At a small farm near Fontaneto, 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.

Quotes

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

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
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* Walter Hamma, "Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst", Wilhelmshaven 1993, ISBN 3-7959-0537-0

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* 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
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* 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