Giovanni Battista Ceruti

Who was Giovanni Battista Ceruti?

Giovanni Battista Ceruti was an influential Italian violin maker, and is considered a direct link to the grand tradition of the Cremonese master violin makers/ Luthiers of the 18th century.

Born a generation after Stradivarius and Guarnerius, with no direct link to the great tradition, violin making made an unlikely comeback in Cremona in the person of Lorenzo Storioni and his two followers, Giovanni Rota and Giovanni Battista Ceruti.

Along with Giovanni Rota, G.B. Ceruti was a follower of Lorenzo Storioni. He was born just outside of Cremona and did not take up violin making until about age 40. It is said that he was probably self-taught, and his change of profession may have come through his colleagues in the textile trade, Bergonzi brothers, Nicola and Carlo II nephews of Michel Angelo Bergonzi, who did make a few violins.

Ceruti’s work is cleaner than Storioni’s, and more prolific than Rota’s. Philip Kass states that Ceruti was sponsored by a nobleman, to the displeasure of the famous dealer and collector Count Cozio, who was promoting other makers, including Giovanni Battista Guadagnini and Giacomo Rivolta of Milan.