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Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), designer and custodian of keyboard instruments at the court of Prince Ferdinand de' Medici of Florence, is generally credited with the invention of the piano, which he called a "harpsichord with soft and loud", with its mechanically rebounding hammers. Cristofori replaced the plucking mechanism of the harpsichord with a complex hammer action which used the downward pressure on a key to project a small hammer towards the strings at a speed four to eight times faster than the key movement, thus enabling the piano's great variation in loudness according to the amount of force applied to the keys. It allowed the hammer to rebound from the freely vibrating string without bouncing back, and included a shifting mechanism so the hammer could play only one of the two strings to reduce volume. As is evidenced by the copy by Thomas and Barbara Wolf and surviving examples, these were extremely responsive instruments with a wide dynamic range and unique tonal qualities.
According to contemporary sources, Cristofori may have made a prototype as early as 1694 and at least four of his pianos existed in 1711. Cristofori's design was largely ignored in Italy as harpsichord players found the touch unfamiliar and the tone less brilliant and softer. Composer Antonio Lotti, first organist at the basilica of St. Mark in Venice and maestro di capella from 1733, traveled to Dresden on a leave of absence to compose three operas during the years 1717 to 1719, accompanied by his wife, other musicians in residence at the basilica, his librettist, and a fortepiano by Cristofori. The instrument also became known and adopted in Germany through articles in dictionaries of music. In the late 1730's Gottfrled Silberman is said to have read a German language account of an article by Scipione Maffei of 1711, and after less successful initial attempts, Silberman greatly impressed Johann Sebastian Bach with a similar instrument made for the flutist King Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) which copied the Cristofori action almost exactly. However it is likely that J.S. Bach had played Lotti's Cristofori in Dresden several decades earlier.
Maffei stated that Cristofori's "gravicembalo col piano e forte" was suitable for use in every way, and Lotti may well have brought the instrument to Dresden for use in performances of his operas, perhaps particularly for recitative accompaniment. Farinelli is said to have owned one.
Please http://www.ptg.org/museum/cristo.htm and click on the little image for an enlarged picture of the 1722 piano built in Florence and now in the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome.
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