Stradivari harp tree-ring data

Three tree ring sequences were collected on the soundboard of the Stradivari harp. Due to the presence of the strings in the centre of the harp soundboard, the sampling of the tree ring widths was focused separately on the right side (RX), the central (CX) and the left side (LX). Tree ring measure- ments were … Read more

Dendrochronological analysis of the Stradivari’s harp

Stradivari’s apprenticeship is still not completely understood today. Tradition has it that he was a pupil of Nicola Amati, the great violin maker who preceded him in musical instruments production in the city of Cremona. However, no documents proving Stradivari’s presence in Nicola Amati’s workshop can be found. In this paper, we present a dendrochronological … Read more

Dendrochronological analysis of bowed and plucked instruments from the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory, Naples

The Museo Storico Musicale of the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Music in Naples owns a collection of over 200 musical instruments of considerable historical importance. Within the collection, 30 bowed and plucked instruments representative of the Neapolitan violin-making tradition were analysed dendrochronologically to date them, estimate the provenance of the wood and investigate … Read more

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699 CE to infer variations in building activity. … Read more

Dalla Gallia all’antica Roma, la via del legno

Le Scienze, dicembre 2019. Ventiquattro tavole di quercia utilizzate come fondamenta di un portico romano di epoca imperiale rinvenute a Roma durante i lavori per la Metro C, in via Sannio, dietro San Giovanni in Laterano.I reperti lignei provengono dalla Francia nord-orientale e risalgono al 40 d.C. Le indagini scientifiche effettuate dall’Istituto per la BioEconomia … Read more

Alberi e graffiti per leggere il clima del passato

Sul massiccio roccioso del monte Cornón, nel Trentino orientale, sono visibili migliaia di pittografie e scritte che testimoniano tre secoli di attività pastorale; più di 30.000 graffiti che contengono perlopiù iniziali, sigle, date, nomi, conteggi del bestiame, figure di animali, ritratti, messaggi di saluto e annotazioni diaristiche. Una ricerca condotta dall’Ivalsa-Cnr li ha messi in relazione … Read more

Il violino “Guarneri” ritrovato grazie alla scienza

RUBRICA – Scienza e beni culturali, Sapere Scienza. La dendrocronologia è la scienza in grado di datare manufatti attraverso la misura degli anelli di accrescimento del legno e, nel caso degli strumenti musicali, può essere eseguita in maniera assolutamente non invasiva attraverso l’analisi di fotografie. Le foto di un violino, di proprietà privata, sono state … Read more

A Guarneri violin in the attic: the power of dendrochronology for analysing musical instruments

Dendrochronology is the science that dates wooden artefacts by measuring annual growth rings visible in the wood. And, in the case of musical instruments, the method is non-invasive. In addition, dendrochronology can also help to identify the wood’s provenance and to supply information on how the soundboard was made, giving details of ring width and … Read more