Girolamo Zenti (Viterbo c.1609 - Paris c.1666) (also: Girolama de Zenti, Gerolamo de Sentis, Hieronymus de Zentis) was an Italian harpsichord maker and organ builder in the 17th century. He is known as the probable inventor of the bentside spinet and for having traveled unusually extensively to practice his trade at the courts of Europe, including Rome, Florence, Paris, London and Stockholm. [1] [2]
Information on Zentis life is fragmentary and spread wide. Zenti was born in Viterbo, near Rome, and was registered as an instrument maker in the papal capital by 1638. He was apprentice to Giovani Battista Boni, and took over the workshop at the latter's death in 1641. He took a commission at the Swedish court in 1653, serving Queen Christina for several years. He took an Organ building project in Rome in 1660, but left the instrument unfinished for Paris. By 1664 he was in service at the newly restored English court of Charles II. He received the title of The King's virginal maker, but was back in Rome before the year was out. Two years later he was again in Paris, where he died in 1666. At some point he was probably in service of the Medici family in Florence, for an inventory made at Bartolomeo Cristofori's arrival there in 1700 lists six Zenti instruments. [3]
It is not proven that Zenti invented the bentside spinet, but the earliest existing bentside spinet (1631) is by Zenti, and the instrument became popular, especially in Britain, after his travels there. The final clue giving this theory support is that in France the bentside spinet was called: espinette á l'italienne. [4]
No instruments from his time in northern Europe have been discovered, but around a dozen instruments from Italy have been attributed to him, although only two with certainty, a bentside spinet and a harpsichord. [5] The most famous is without doubt the 1631 bentside spinet now in Brussels. A true inner instrument of thinwalled cypress in an ornate outer box, single scale in brass. [6] A harpsichord, now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, dated to the year of his death in 1666, is a single manual, 2x8', true inner-outer instrument, notably restored by Cristofori's apprentice, Giovani Ferrini, bearing the inscription: "HIERONYMUS ZENTI FECIT ROMAE A.S. MDCLXVI/ JOANNES FERRINI FLORENTINVS RESTAVRAVIT MDCCLV" [7] The Metropolitan museum also houses an octave spinet probably by Zenti of unusually small size, possibly made for a child. [8] In the Deutsches Museum in Munich there is an instrument traced through organological evidence to Zenti, that regrettably is a victim of Leopoldo Franciolini, a noted antiques fraudster in the late 19th century who ruined the instrument by installing two extra keyboards to pump up its price. [9]
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic. The strings are under tension on a soundboard, which is mounted in a wooden case; the soundboard amplifies the vibrations from the strings so that the listeners can hear it. Like a pipe organ, a harpsichord may have more than one keyboard manual, and even a pedal board. Harpsichords may also have stop buttons which add or remove additional octaves. Some harpsichords may have a buff stop, which brings a strip of buff leather or other material in contact with the strings, muting their sound to simulate the sound of a plucked lute.
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was an Italian maker of musical instruments famous for inventing the piano.
A spinet is a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument, such as a piano or organ.
The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
A clavicytherium is a harpsichord in which the soundboard and strings are mounted vertically facing the player. The primary purpose of making a harpsichord vertical is the same as in the later upright piano, namely to save floor space. In a clavicytherium, the jacks move horizontally without the assistance of gravity, so that clavicytherium actions are more complex than those of other harpsichords.
The oval spinet is a type of harpsichord invented in the late 17th century by Bartolomeo Cristofori, the Italian instrument maker who later achieved fame for inventing the piano. The oval spinet was unusual for its shape, the arrangement of its strings, and for its mechanism for changing registration.
Hieronymus Albrecht Hass was a German harpsichord and clavichord maker. He was the father of Johann Adolph Hass, who also made harpsichords and clavichords.
Johann Adolph Rudolph Hass, usually known as Johann Adolph Hass, was a German maker of clavichords, harpsichords and possibly organs. He was the son of Hieronymus Albrecht Hass, also a maker of keyboard instruments.
The harpsichord was an important keyboard instrument in Europe from the 15th through the 18th centuries, and as revived in the 20th, is widely played today.
Stewart Pollens is an expert on historical musical instruments. His work includes restoration, analysis, and scholarly publication; and it embraces keyboard instruments as well as historical stringed instruments such as the violin and cello. Andrew Manze has called him "one of the world’s foremost authorities on musical instruments."
The spinettone was a kind of harpsichord invented in the late 17th century by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was later the inventor of the piano. Other names for this instrument were spinettone da teatro, spinetta traversa.
The folding harpsichord was a kind of harpsichord meant for travel. Since it could be folded up into a fairly compact space, it was more easily transported than a conventional harpsichord. The folding took place on hinges and was in the longitudinal dimension, preserving the tension on the strings. The folded instrument formed a package about the size of a large suitcase.
Leopoldo Franciolini (1844–1920) was an Italian antique dealer who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is remembered as a fraudster who sold faked and altered historical musical instruments. To this day his work is a barrier to the scholarly study of instruments of the past.
The Denis family were French harpsichord makers from the mid 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, by which time the Blanchet family had superseded them as the main harpsichord building dynasty in Paris. Members of the Denis family headed the instrument makers' guild for several generations, but only four harpsichords by members of the family have survived to modern times, and three spinets. Several of the Denis instruments are signed in red chalk under the sound board with the makers name, place of construction and date, along with three five-pointed stars. Instruments by the Denis family were held in high regard well after their time, as witnessed by an entry in the Encyclopédie Methodique from 1785: "The best makers of ordinary harpsichords have been the Ruckers in Antwerp... and Jean Denis of Paris".
Albert Delin was a harpsichord maker in the Low Countries.
The Donzelagues were a family of harpsichord makers in southern France in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Antunes family were Portuguese harpsichord- and early piano builders in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Russell Collection is a substantial collection of early keyboard instruments assembled by the British harpsichordist and organologist Raymond Russell. It forms part of the Musical Instrument Museums collection of the University of Edinburgh, and is housed in St Cecilia's Hall. Its full name is the Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments.
Giovanni Battista Giusti was a musical-instrument maker. He was a student first of Giovani Battista Boni, then Girolamo Zenti. He lived in Lucca, Italy.
