Medici Tenor Viola

When this viola left Cremona in 1690, an instrument of its size was already going out of use. Tenor violas had filled the middle voices of 17th-century string bands, and players were moving to smaller, handier violas. So this one was played little, and unlike many big violas of its age it was never cut down. Its neck, fingerboard and tailpiece are original.

Look at the lower end of the fingerboard. The Medici arms are inlaid there in mother-of-pearl, with small putti around them, and on the tailpiece below a Cupid draws his bow. Inside, along the bass bar, a hand that appears to be Stradivari's wrote "Prima 20 ottobre 1690 per S. A. da Fiorenza", a dated note for His Highness in Florence, Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici.

In 1863 it went to the city's music institute, today the Cherubini Conservatory. In December 1869 the violin maker Giuseppe Scarampella opened it to treat woodworm and found a patch set into the top, marked "Correto da me", corrected by me, in Stradivari's own hand. The conservatory still owns it, and since 2001 it has been on show in the Accademia's rooms of musical instruments.