Gioffredo Cappa

Life and Career

In the sixteenth century, Saluzzo was one of the most prosperous cities in Piedmont. After being caught between French and German troops, it was assigned to the French court in 1601. French merchants and artisans, including many violin makers, had followed the troops to Piedmont and settled there. We do not know for certain whether Gioffredo Cappa was born in Saluzzo. Many archives were destroyed during the conflict. However, the ecclesiastical archives of Saluzzo Cathedral do show that Gioffredo Cappa died there. He must have been a man of distinction, as he was buried within the walls of the cathedral rather than in a cemetery. His standing also reflected his professional expertise; his death certificate bore the title “Maestro.” The fact that Gioffredo Cappa was known as Cappa da Saluzzo—and that the second part of the name in Piedmont usually referred to one’s place of birth—may indicate that Saluzzo was also his birthplace. His year of birth is generally accepted as 1653.

From the moment Cappa began working as a violin maker in Saluzzo, his name appeared in the city’s tax records. He lived in the parish of San Bernardo and married Maria Scotti there in 1679.

In 1696, Saluzzo was overrun by French troops. Cappa presumably fled to Mondovi, which lay outside the theater of war and was one of the largest cities in Piedmont. A cello known to have been made by him in 1697 is documented as having been built in Mondovi. In the same year, he also stayed in Turin. Although he does not appear in the city’s records, there is an original violin with a label from Turin dating from that year. In 1706, the French army also ravaged Turin. A year later, in 1707, Cappa had returned to Saluzzo. He continued to work there until his death in 1717.

Work and Influence

Cappa’s early violins bore a strong resemblance to those from Northern Europe. In Piedmont, his native region, two schools of violin making had converged: the French and the German. The German violin makers were refugees from the Thirty Years’ War. The French, and particularly the Parisians among them, had come to northern Italy in the wake of many artisans and merchants after the French king had taken control of northern Italy. Among them were many Huguenot refugees who had learned their craft from Flemish and Dutch makers. Protected by the French court, the influence of the French grew over the years, while that of the Germans diminished; however, in violin making, a blend of techniques from both regions had emerged. Contemporaries from Piedmont, such as Enrico Cattenar, Giovanni Francesco Celoniato, and Spirito Sorsana, also worked in this manner. Only in Cremona and Bologna did the luthiers employ a different technique.

Cappa didn't build his instruments that way for very long. Around 1680, he appeared to come under the influence of the Amati family and began building his instruments in the style customary in Cremona. This is particularly evident in the contours, which closely resemble the large Amati model, though they are more fluid and less austere. The influence of Amati is also evident in the curvature.

Cappa did not seem to be overly concerned with the finish. That his instruments can be described as striking rather than refined is evident, among other things, from the pins he used to secure the back. These are not placed against the edge inlay or even partially concealed beneath it, as most skilled builders did, but he placed them clearly visible within the edge. Traces of his tools are visible everywhere, and his purfling is not uniformly symmetrical in shape and color throughout.

He placed the f-holes far apart and angled them slightly forward. They most closely resemble those of Andrea, the oldest Amati, who lived well over a hundred years earlier. Cappa used primarily high-quality wood, which he finished with a beautiful, vibrant varnish in various shades of gold and orange-brown, occasionally verging on red.

An examination of Cappa’s instruments by Vincenzo Lancetti reveals that he used only two models for his violins. The first is small and fairly arched; the other is larger, flatter, and more finely finished. With the exception of those by Stradivari and Amati, Cappa’s cellos rank among the best Italian instruments, in Lancetti’s opinion. In this way, they are similar to those of a few other late 17th-century makers who used a smaller cello model, such as Francesco Ruggeri and Andrea Guarneri.

In the nineteenth century, under the influence of Cozio, Viotti, and others, the work of Gioffredo Cappa came to be highly regarded. Both played a violin made by him or had several in their collections. Cozio wrote that Cappa’s violins were “highly prized, especially by people in the Northern Netherlands and England, who paid high prices for these instruments.” In their opinion, Gioffredo Cappa was the best among the makers who ranked just below the top Italian makers.

The violin by Gioffredo Cappa in the collection of the Musical Instrument Fund likely dates from the period before he fled Saluzzo.

Sources

Frazier, B, 2007, Cozio, Count Ignazio Alessandro di Salabue, Memoirs of a Violin Collector, Baltimore.

Kass, P. J., ‘Modern Historical Research: The Violin as Art’, Journal of the Violin Society of America

Thöne J., 2003, Italian & French violinmakers, Grottamare

Carlson B., Schmitt J. F., Moroder I., Leonhard F., 2001,Italian & French Violin Makers, Keulen

Blot, E., 2001, Italian Violin Making IV - Piedmont, Elic Blot Edizioni, Italy.

Baker T, Dilworth T en Fairfax A., 2001, The British Violin, Londen.

Vannes, R., 1999, Universal Dictionary of Instrument Makers, Spa

De Courcy, G.I.C., 1957, Paganini: The Genoese, University of Oklahoma

Sacchi, F, 1898, Count Cozio di Salabue: Celebrated Violin Collector, London.

Tarisio; Cozio Archive, accessed in 2020