Maker Background
Giuseppe Ferrari 'Da Ferrara' is a very interesting character of modern violin making in Italy. Learning the craft in parallel with his previous profession, Ferrari managed to create
pieces that properly put him among his finest violin-maker peers. His style is deeply inspired by the School of Ferrara, which gave him a very important and distinctive personal approach among his contemporaries from Rome.
Born in Ferrara, in Emilia Romagna, in 1900, Giuseppe Ferrari spent the most part of his young times in Rome, where he also worked as a bank director. After 25 years, he moved back to his hometown where he focused on the violin making craft, though the majority of his labels still indicated that his instruments were made in Rome. Back in Rome, Ferrari had his time as a music student at the Conservatory of G. Frescobaldi. During that time, he started frequenting the workshop of Maestreo Ettore Soffritti, where he had his first contacts with the violin-making world, and also his first lessons. It is most probable that his deeper learning came under the guidance of Soffritti's former student, Maestro Anselmo Gotti. Ferrari's style is deeply inspired by the School of Ferrara, from the F-hole cuts, the purfling mitre style, varnish, and some other construction processes. His style resambles considerably that of Sofritti's instruments, which were undeniably his main influence. Ferrari took part in several Violin making expositions and competitions, such as the 1960 Modern and antique violin making exhibition in Pegli, Thand the International H. Wieniawski Violin Making competition in Poland in 1957, in which Ferrari donated his violin to the Polish State collection.
