The Sabionari was the first of three guitars that Stradivari built between 1679 and 1688 according to the same model. It is the only one of the three that has built in the house/workshop that is still standing in Cremona in S.Agata parish. In the photo the house. In 1680 he moved his home and workshop in front of the S.Domenico church.
The letter shown here, written in 1854, accompanied the guitar.
From : Filippo Benetti
Address : Most honourable Engineer Vincenzo Tioli Bologna
Dear Friend,
Your kindest paper is written on last February 19 : but I did not have it until
the present moment and I don't know how it is.
The guitar is of Stradivari and the authentication is born by the neck doing the
legalization by his own hand.
This guitar was purchased in Cremona from the descendants of the family who sold
it to a certain Giovanni Sabionari and I purchased it from him : but maintain it as
the pure truth, that the instrument is true and real manufactured by the above
mentioned Antonio and that he made only that one.
This is what I owed you in due answer, meantime I submit to your orders, I am
already collecting other things and manuscripts that at your coming we will make
other bargains.
Meanwhile believe with distinguished esteem .
Ferrara First of May 1854
Very humble servant of you best Sir
Filippo Benetti
So, according to the letter, Antonio Stradivari never sold the Sabionari guitar in his life. It is thought that, like some of his violins, the guitar may have been among the instruments he kept as examples of his finest craftsmanship, to be shown to prospective clients. Almost a century later, around 1770, Stradivari’s son Paolo sold the guitar to Giovanni Sabionari, a wealthy merchant from Ferrara. Following Sabionari’s death in 1790, his financial difficulties passed on to his children and eventually forced the family to sell the instrument to Filippo Benetti, an art dealer and bookseller from Ferrara. In 1854, the guitar passed into the hands of the landowner Vincenzo Tioli
In 1888, the Sabionari guitar was displayed in the wonderfil Music Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Bologna, organized under the patronage of King Vittorio Emanuele II and presided over by Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito. Giuseppe Fiorini headed the technical committee, of which a young Richard Strauss was also a member. The exhibition was a true Wunderkammer of music, bringing together instruments by Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri from across Europe. In the photo below, the Catalog of the exhibition. The guitar was in the showcase n. 12 close to the Stradivarius harp and other instruments.
On 5 december 1948 the current owners brought the Sabionari to Andrés Segovia. He was in Bologna for the 10th Italian and International Conference about guitar. The Master wanted to write inside the guitar a dedication to Stradivari "Due secoli piu tarde" (Mixed Italian and Spanish, "Two centuries later") and and his signature.
On april 2011 the owners entrusted the Sabionari guitar to the expert hands of Sinier de Ridder for a conservative restauration, that gave also back to the guitar its original baroque sound. In 2012 the guitar returned to Cremona. Il the photo the article of the local newspaper about the presentation of the guitar to the city and the first concert.
Starting from 2013 the Sabionari has been on show in the Museo del Violino in Cremona. Here, it was able to be reunited with other instruments alongside which it had remained on display in Antonio Stradivari’s workshop for many years—such as the inlaid *Hellier* violin of 1679 (pictured in the center) or the *Messiah* violin of 1716.
The Sabionari in Museo del Violino in 2016, in front of his majesty the Stradivarius *Messiah* violin of 1716.
In 2018, the guitar travelled to Tokyo for the Tokyo Stradivarius Festival, where it was displayed as part of the largest exhibition of Stradivari instruments ever organized: 21 Stradivarius
Here is the list of the instruments on show.
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