Determining the resonance wood provenance of stringed instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory Collection in Florence, Italy

The wood provenance of what is considered today's most important collection of stringed instruments by Tuscan violin-makers, the Collection of the "Luigi Cherubini" Conservatory, at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, was analyzed dendrochronologically. On the basis of 95 geographically very widely distributed master chronologies, the most likely areas of origin of the Norway spruce wood used for the construction of 32 from a total of 37 instruments were determined. Consequently, the most important centres of wood supply were established. Finally, a location in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines was identified as the likely provenance of a considerable quantity of timber used in the construction of these instruments. The results provide a new prospect in studying the geographical origins of the wood from which stringed instruments were made in the past, by using dendrochronological analysis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.