Gasparo Bertolotti 'da Salò', Brescia, c. 1600
Viola: 55621
Imitation label, "Gasparo da Salo in Brescia / 1561" (the date added in ink).
Converted from a two-cornered lira da braccio. Double purfled.
Back: Two-piece cut on the slab.
Top: 'Cedar of Lebanon' (probably a local variety of pine).
Scroll: Modern replacement, probably in the Hill workshop.
Length of back: 41.5 cm
Upper bouts: 21.1 cm
Middle bouts: 15.5 cm
Lower bouts: 25.8 cm
Notes:
"This is essentially a viola with features that are typical of the lira da braccio. . ."Stringed Instruments: Viols, Violins, Citterns, and Guitars in the Ashmolean Museum, Harvey S. Whistler, Stringed Instruments: Viols, Violins, Citterns, and Guitars in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Provenance
| d'Este family | |
| until 1939 | W. E. Hill & Sons |
| from 1939 | Ashmolean Museum, Hill Collection, University of Oxford |
References
Gasparo da Salo: architetto del suono (exhibition catalog), Flavio Dasseno, curator, cremonabooks, Cremona (illustrated)- Musical Instruments in the Ashmolean Museum: The Complete Collection, John Milnes, editor, Oxford Musical Instrument Publishing, Oxford (illustrated)
- Stringed Instruments: Viols, Violins, Citterns, and Guitars in the Ashmolean Museum, Harvey S. Whistler, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (illustrated)