Dendrochronological investigation of the bowed string instruments at the Theatre Museum Carlo Schmidl in Trieste, Italy

Abstract

Abstract The Civico Museo Teatrale Carlo Schmidl in Trieste, Italy, hosts a collection of bowed string instruments, the majority of which have been made by local violin makers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dendrochronological analysis afforded the terminus post quem of 17 out of 23 bellies with significant statistical parameters. With the pooled series of all instruments, a mean chronology spanning 280 years between 1658 and 1938, named Museum Schmidl Trieste (MST), was constructed. MST correlates with numerous reference chronologies validated for Norway spruce and silver fir in the Alps and Central Europe. We exploited the width of the growth rings and the statistically most potent cross-matchings with reference chronologies for drawing hypotheses on dendroprovenance coming to the conclusion that the resonance wood of the instruments at the Schmidl-Museum mainly originated from Central Europe and the Eastern Alps.