Preserving and Reproducing the Past.
Stories of Ancient Musical Instruments

Ancient musical instruments have an ideal lifespan of a few centuries, but during this time, a wide range of events can occur. Musical instruments are at greater risk compared to cultural artifacts kept in museums, as they are not preserved in controlled and secure environments. Instead, they are constantly traveling to be played in concert halls around the world. For this reason, it is essential to document and gather data about ancient musical instruments, so that in the event of damage or loss, there is information available to repair or reconstruct them, aiming to come as close as possible to the quality of the original instruments.

In this research, we present a collection of three ancient musical instruments that we have studied and documented by scanning them in high definition, with the aim of reproducing them. This collection includes a viola da gamba by Gasparo da Salò (1580), a viola (da braccio) by Francesco Ventura di Linarol (1585), and a violin by Stradivari (1737).

Here, we present the stories of these three instruments, accompanied by the data we collected, their 3D reproductions, and other multimedia resources useful for their understanding (images, audio, video). The stories are created using Semantic Web technologies, and the related Knowledge Graph is available on this website.