Francesco Maurizi

Francesco Maurizi (1816–1903) was an Italian violin maker active at Appignano del Tronto in the Marche. Born at Colle del Tronto into a farming family, he appears to have been largely self-taught as a maker and began producing instruments around 1840. Violin making remained alongside his agricultural occupation, and he was later assisted by his son Giovanni.

Maurizi developed a highly ...Read More personal and immediately recognizable style, only loosely connected with the established classical schools of Italian violin making. His violins often have somewhat irregular outlines, narrow edges and short corners, with strongly arched plates and comparatively constricted soundholes. The scrolls are generally large and robustly cut. Materials can be plain, but the varnish is often particularly attractive, ranging from golden-orange and brown to deeper orange-red shades.

His production appears to have been almost exclusively devoted to violins, and surviving examples are relatively uncommon. Some instruments carry misleading or pre-dated labels bearing fictitious names such as “Jacopo Brandini” or “Philippus Brandilione,” which in the past led to confusion over their origin and date. Despite the rustic quality sometimes associated with his workmanship, Maurizi’s instruments are remarkably consistent in character and form a distinctive regional school of 19th-century Italian making.

Maurizi died at Appignano del Tronto in 1903. His son Giovanni continued the family’s involvement with violin making, extending a small but characteristic tradition that remains closely associated with the Marche region. Read Less

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