Italy System-Venice School (Venice School)

Cremona's violin was mainly made for European musicians; Milan’s violin was mainly used by the middle class; but for Venice’s instruements, was played by any kind of classes. This is because the instrument was in the closed market circulation; it was mostly purchased by opera, orphanages, churches and other organizations. However, the price of Venice violin was much higher than the Milan’s violin.

In the mid-seventeenth century, Venice's string instruments reached to the glorious achievements. Craftsmen, Martinus Kaiser (1642-1695) originally produced for the lute industry, and then switched his direction to violin industry. A student named Matteo Goffriller (1659-1742) therefore became the only one left of violin craftsmen for 25 years after the death of the Kaiser. Until 1711, Domenico Motagnana (1687-1750) , Francesco Gobetti (1675-1723) began to run their own shop.

Around 1717, 1718 years, Carlo Tonoli (1675-1730) and Petropavlovsk Guarneri both became one of the foremost makers of the new Venetian School. They both worked independently at Matteo II Sellas studio. In 1723, Santo Seraphin (1699-ca. 1758) joined later on. Due to the political conflict between Venice and Turley, it had led to the decline of urban development, and also affected the culture directly. Starting from 1745, Venice gradually lost vitality violin.

Afte 1750s, we had Michele Demenico (1712-1780) , Domenico Busan (1720 - 1783) , Anselmo Bellosio (1743-1793) and Antonio Cerin (1774-ca. 1808) as violin makers.

From 16 to 18 century, string instrument used in Europe were mostly came from Brescia, Cremona, Absam or the North of Füssen Alps region. Due to the shape of the area, Venice musicians had to adapt with the limitation. Venice’s violin was painted in dark red, thick panel, thin wood selection, the unique design of the scroll, set close to the violin strings, special F-hole…etca. The above descriptions were designed by the Germans. These features have created a warmer sound quality and a full bass tone. Therefore, "Independence, freedom, elegance," are the three words used to represent Venice violin.

The making of string instruments in Venice was originally regulated by a union system. Violins were made upon requested orders received from opera houses and government organizations. But by the 1820s, the number of orders diminished due to the political turmoil and economic changes at the time, eventually leading to the dissolution of the old system. Therefore, since the 1820s many non-mainstream luthiers began to gather in Venice, including luthiers such as Govanni Dollenz (1802-1857) from Trieste, Giovanni Battista Bodio (1785-1832) and Pietro Valentino Novello (ca. 1759-1821) . However, both the quantity and quality of instruments made by these luthiers were substantially lower.

It was not until the 1860s that the second generation of the Degani family, Eugenio Degani (1842-1901) brought about a renaissance in Venice’s violin making. Degani trained many students and the craft of the Venice school spread to many different places in Italy. In 1922, due to the poor economic conditions in Venice, Giulio Degani (1875-1955) , son of Eugenio, was forced to move to Cincinatti in America to practice his craft. The Venice system of violin making thus came to a halt.