Memoirs of a Violin Collector: Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue (Frazier)

Considered the first expert in the study of violins, Cozio (1755–1840) collected, sold, catalogued, and studied hundreds of Cremonese instruments just decades after the deaths of the great masters and long before it was popular to do so. He befriended restorers and famously purchased the contents of the Stradivari workshop, including forms, instruments, and tools. In the process, he documented the instruments in their near-original conditions and helped to preserve their legacies.

Count Cozio’s memoirs, correspondence, and explicit notes, which were taken from the handwritten manuscript now held in the biblioteca Statale di Cremona, Italy, are being published for the first time, in either English or contemporary Italian.

Some of the names and families described include: Amati, Bergonzi, Cappa, Gagliano, Gasparo de Salo, Grancino, Guadagnini, Guarneri, Landolfi, Maggini, Mantegazza, Marchi, Ruggieri, Steiner, Storioni, Tekler and Testore.