Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

V1-AB1586.1: Polygonal Virginal, Alessandro Bertolotti. Italy (Verona?), 1586.

Text from the paper presented to the Galpin Society, Edinburgh, August, 1999

The polygonal virginal by Alexander Bertolotti, 1586
The maker Alexander Bertolotti is supposed to have lived and worked in Venice. The 1586 virginal in the Russell Collection¹ is very similar in many of its physical aspects (see Figure 1 and the diagram shown in Figure 2) to those of Dominicus Pisaurensis, Franciscus Patavinus, Iosephus Salodiensis, Ioannes Celestini, Marco Jadra and Benedetto Floriani, all of whom lived and worked in Venice, and the names of all of whom appear in the Venetian archives². Indeed an anonymous list of harpsichord and virginal builders written in 1741 in Rome³ mentions a certain Bartolotti(sic) among the two Trasuntinos, Celestini, the two Florianis, Baffo, Donato Undeo and Francesco Padovano all of whom are said by the author of the list to have worked in Venice. At first glance it is therefore not surprising that the Russell Collection virginal has many features in common with the instruments of these other Venetian makers.

The name of Alexander Bertolotti does not, however, appear in the Venetian archives despite the fact that many modern authors have also assumed that he lived and worked there⁴. Stefano Toffolo, in his book on Venetian instrument makers⁵, mentions instruments signed by Bertolotti, but he has confirmed in private correspondence to me that he has not been able to find any archival trace of Bertolotti in Venice. I would like to show that the solution posed by this enigma lies in an analysis of the unit of measurement used to construct the instrument.

Without going here into the actual process of analysing the measurements, I present only the results. The measurements shown below in Figure 3 are those of the baseboard of the Bertolotti virginal without the case sides. The Venetian piede had a length of 347.76mm with an oncia of length 28.98mm. The baseboard measurements, the case height and other measurements of the keyplank, scalings, etc. of the Bertolotti virginal give strange irrational numbers when they are converted using the Venetian oncia. However, it seems clear that the instrument was constructed using the Veronese piede of 342.915mm with an oncia of 28.576mm. When expressed in units of the Veronese oncia the dimensions of the baseboard give simple straight-forward numbers typical of the measurements of many other virginals of this period. Using this value for the oncia the case height of the Bertolotti virginal is once, the same value in once as that used by other Venetian makers, and the angle at the front left hand corner was constructed using a rectangle with sides of 3 once and 6 once, also the same as that used by a number of other Venetian makers. The length of the notes f² and f³ used by Bertolotti to design his string scalings are almost exactly 9 and 4½ Veronese once, etc.

The use by Bertolotti of the Veronese oncia and not the Venetian unit, suggests that archival research on Bertolotti should therefore be aimed at Verona and not at Venice. Clearly the evidence provided by the unit of measurement used to design and construct an instrument can be extremely valuable in determining where a builder was active, as is clearly shown by this example. It therefore seems clear that the virginal by Bertolotti, although made in a style similar to many Venetian virginals was made in Verona by a builder who was totally familiar with, and perhaps even trained in, the Venetian tradition.

Footnotes:
¹See: Sidney Newman and Peter Williams, The Russell Collection and other Early Keyboard Instruments in Saint Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh, (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1968) Cat. No. 1, p. 3. The date of this instrument is 1586 and not 1585 as given in the catalogue. The instrument is signed "ALEXANDER BERTOLOTI MDLXXXVI". The surname is not spelled "BERTALOTI" as reported in Denzil Wraight's Ph.D. dissertation, The Stringing of Italian Keyboard Instruments, Part Two, UMI number 9735109 (UMI, Ann Arbor, MI, 1997) p. 62. Russell, Boalch and Valdrighi mentioned in the footnote above give the spelling as 'Bertolotti', the normal spelling of this fairly-common North-Italian surname, whereas the signature on the Russell Collection virginal is clearly spelled "BERTOLOTI". I have, however, used the form 'Bertolotti' here in conformity with modern Italian spelling.

²See: my paper 'Marco Jadra. A Venetian harpsichord and virginal maker?', Festschrift für Kurt Wittmayer, Silke Berdux general editor (Munich, 1999). [In print.]

³See: Oscar Mischiati, 'Un elenco romano di cembalari redatto nel 1741', L'organo, 10, (1972) p. 106. My thanks to Prof Mischiati for pointing out to me this reference to Bertolotti.

⁴Both Raymond Russell, The Harpsichord and Clavichord, (Faber and Faber, London, 1959; 2/1965; reprint, London, 1973) p. 36, and Donald H Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840, (Third edition, edited by Charles Mould, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995) p. 16 state that Bertolotti was from Venice. This probably arises from the entry under 'Bertolotti' in Luigi-Francesco Valdrighi, Nomocheliurgografìa antica e moderna ossia elenco di fabbricatori di strumenti armonici, (Società Tipografica, Modena, 1884; facsimile, Forni, Bologna, 1970) p. 10, no. 315, where he is stated to have worked in Venice. I know of no earlier reference to Bertolotti. It should be noted that J.J.K. Rhodes and W.R. Thomas discovered, without publishing their observations, that the instrument in the Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments (No. 1132) with the signature "ALEXANDER BORTOLOTTI(sic) MDLXXXV" is probably by Franciscus Bonafinus. This information, with confirmation by Denzil Wraight of their original attribution, is included in the third edition of Boalch's catalogue (see above, p. 238), although this instrument is not listed along with the other instruments under 'Bonafinus' on page 249.

⁵Stefano Toffolo, Antichi Strumenti Veneziani. 1500-1800: Quattro secoli di liuteria e cembalaria, (Arsenale Editrice, Venice, 1987) p.157.

Contents | Home Page| List of Instruments