Il Cannone

‘Il Cannone’ (The Cannon) was the violin of Niccolò Paganini. It is now kept in Palazzo Tursi, the Town Hall of Genoa. He got this instrument in Livorno (Leghorn in the text below), in a quite strange way...

“The wildest accounts of gambling excesses date from his youth. Paganini had inherited from his father a love of gambling, and would frequently risk the entire proceeds from a concert before it had taken place. The story of how he came by his famous ‘Cannon’ Guarnieri del Gesù is the classic instance. On the eve of a concert in Leghorn, Paganini had gambled away his Amati violin. A rich merchant named Livron loaned him an instrument from his private collection. After the concert, Livron rushed up to Paganini begging him to keep it as a token of appreciation, making one proviso: that the violin should be played only by Paganini himself. The artist kept his word and used it for the rest of his life. He was once offered a high price for it and was tempted to accept the offer to settle a gambling debt but, instead, he staked his last 30 francs and won; he never sat at the tables again.”

(The Great Violinists, by Margaret Campbell)

External links: Niccolò Paganini - Il Cannone Guarnerius - Giuseppe Guarneri (Wikipedia)

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