Francesco Bonafinis

by Sarah Davachi

It is known that Bonafinis lived primarily during the sixteenth century, and resided in San Marco, one of the six districts of Venice, Italy. That being said, it is not clear if ‘Bonafinis’ is in fact the instrument builder’s actual name. Questions concerning the authenticity of the name have arisen from the fact that there are only two known examples of Bonafinis instruments in the world – a fact that is especially problematic when one also takes into account that virginals from the sixteenth century are extremely rare specimens in themselves.

The nameplate, or batten, of the artifact in the NMC Collection is inscribed with ‘Doanusa Benisimis’, which is believed to simply be a misreading of ‘Bonafinis’. The only other instrument that has been attributed to Bonafinis is another polygonal virginal dated to 1587. The nameplate of that instrument is signed ‘Bonafinis’, however it is also believed that this nameplate was actually removed from another instrument, a harpsichord dating from 1585. The harpsichord in question currently contains the inscription ‘Alexander Bortolotti’, but shows traces of another name, which again could have been a misinterpretation of ‘Bonafinis’.

In fact, the harpsichord from which the nameplate is thought to have been taken is actually believed to be the work of the Italian harpsichord builder, Leopoldo Franciolini, and there is even some conjecture that Franciolini simply invented the name ‘Bonafinis’ when inserting the batten onto the virginal of 1587. The virginal was then converted in 1717 into a tangentflugel or tangent piano – essentially, an early clavichord that features the same design as a virginal but employs small pieces of metal to produce a striking action, similar to that of a piano, instead of a plucking action – and currently resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.