Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) was an Italian keyboard-instrument maker credited with inventing the piano around 1700. His instrument used hammers to strike strings, allowing players to vary loudness through touch.

Harpsichord: A keyboard instrument whose keys pluck strings, producing notes with little variation in loudness from touch. Cristofori built harpsichords before developing a hammer-action keyboard instrument.
Gravicembalo col piano e forte: Cristofori’s early piano, whose Italian name describes a harpsichord capable of soft and loud playing. The instrument embodies his central departure from the harpsichord.
Medici court: The Florentine ruling family’s court, which supported artists, scholars, and instrument makers. The Medici employed Cristofori and provided the setting for his invention.
Gottfried Silbermann: A German organ and keyboard-instrument maker who built pianos influenced by Cristofori’s design. Silbermann helped carry Cristofori’s piano-making ideas into German workshops.
Clavichord: A quiet keyboard instrument in which metal tangents strike strings and allow limited control of tone and loudness. It offered touch-sensitive dynamics, a quality Cristofori’s more powerful instrument also enabled.
Escapement: A piano-action mechanism that releases the hammer from the key’s direct drive before it reaches the string. Cristofori’s escapement let hammers strike and rebound without being held against strings.
Ferdinando de' Medici: A Medici prince and patron of music who employed Cristofori in Florence. His patronage gave Cristofori the resources and position to develop new instruments.
Johann Sebastian Bach: A German composer and keyboard player whose music became central to the piano repertoire. Bach encountered Silbermann’s pianos and later composed for the instrument’s descendants.
Piano action: The mechanism that transfers a key press into a hammer strike and lets the hammer escape from the string. Cristofori’s action solved how a hammer could strike freely and then fall away.
Repetition mechanism: A piano-action system that lets a key be restruck before it has fully returned to its resting position. Later makers improved rapid repetition beyond the capabilities of Cristofori’s original action.

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FortepianoBroader topic: His hammer-action instruments established the design lineage that led to the fortepiano.