Lombardy Scope

Mandola, second half of the 18th century

Walnut, maple and fir

Marfisa mansion, inv. PME78

The instrument, was purchased by Barbantini to enrich the studio space. Belonging to the lute family and identifiable as a mandola, it is an exquisitely crafted plucked instrument made in the Lombardy area in the second half of the 18th century. The shell is composed of 19 walnut wood staves, elegantly interspersed with thin maple wood fillets, according to a construction technique typical of lutherie of the period. The soundboard, made of spruce, consists of two book-jointed pieces with dense grain in the center and sparser toward the edges. In the center opens a carved walnut rosette, with a geometric shape that can be divided into four sectors, positioned above the chain that horizontally crosses the sound hole. This instrument fits into a historical context of rediscovery and reworking of the tradition of plucked instruments in Lombard musical practice. In particular, it testifies to the revival of the mandola as an alternative to the more modern mandolin, proposing a renewed use of the mandola through a tuning and string tension an octave lower than that of the Lombard mandolin, in line with the changing musical tastes of the time that aimed at the recovery of older sounds.