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Person

Luigi Tarisio

A man dressed in 19th-century attire sits on a patterned couch, holding a violin, with a dark background that highlights his formal vest and bow tie.

Italian dealer, born around 1790, who walked across northern Italy buying up forgotten Cremonese instruments from churches and country attics and selling them on to Paris. He died in 1854 in a Milanese garret with the "Messiah" Stradivarius wrapped in newspaper beside the bed. More than any luthier, Tarisio invented the modern cult of the old Italian violin as a commercial proposition.

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