Biography of Onofrio Antonio Guarracino
(b. Naples, 1628 - d. Naples, post 1698)
Onofrio Guarracino is well known as a maker of rectangular virginals but he also made at least two bentside spinets[1] and a number of harpsichords[2]. The only harpsichord signed by him is the instrument dated 1651 which is the property of Maestro Andrea Coen in Rome. However, on the basis of many of the features that they have in common with other instruments by Guarracino, a number of unsigned harpsichords can also be attributed to him. Among these are the harpsichords in the Royal College of Music in London (Inv. No. 175), in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (Cat. No. 1933.0543), in private ownership in Milan, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. No. 45.41), in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Cat. No. 1986.518) and in the Musikinstrumentenmuseum, Berlin (Cat. No. 4650). Other harpsichords which may also be by Guarracino are in private ownership in Buenos Aires and in the Händelhaus, Halle in Germany (Inv. No. MS-69) although I have not had the opportunity to make a detailed examination of the latter instruments. Although several of his virginals are in the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome, it would appear that none of the harpsichords in this museum is by Guarracino even though many of them are certainly Neapolitan in origin. The characteristics of Neapolitan harpsichords are given elsewhere on this site. One of the most important of these features is the characteristic use by Guarracino of his own workshop unit of measurement close to the Neapolitan oncia.
There are many
documentary references to Guarracino and much of the archival information about
him is known thanks to the hard work and diligent research of Francesco
Nocerino[3]. According to Nocerino,
even in his own time Guarracino was the most important and respected Neapolitan
harpsichord builder[4]. Probably as a result of this high esteem by his contemporaries he
was often called upon to give valuations of instruments and estimates of work,
and many of the archival references deal with this aspect of his activity. The archives show, for example, that he made
a valuation of a mother and child virginal[5] made by one Giovanni
Rispolo. The document relating to the
evaluation shows for the first time that such instruments were made in Naples
as part of a harpsichord builder’s normal activity. This further suggests that, since he knew of their existence,
Guarracino may well also have made them himself, although there is no known
extant example of this aspect of his work.
It is also known that he was involved in the construction and sale of the
elusive tiorbino, a gut-strung octave keyboard instrument[6].
Francesco Nocerino has been able to find the certificate of baptism of Guarracino[7] in the Neapolitan archives. According to this, Honofrio Antonio Guarracino, son of Fabritio Guarracino and Anna d’Accetto, was baptised in the Church of San Gioseppo Maggiore in Naples on the 4th of January, 1628. He was therefore probably born only a few days before this. This means that he was probably born after 1 January, 1628, although his birth may have take place in the dying days of 1627. His earliest known instrument is the only surviving signed harpsichord and is dated 1651, made when he was only 23 years old. Guarracino was married in 1654, aged 27, to Ursula Perrone, daughter of Giuseppe Perrone. On the marriage certificate he states his occupation to be cimbarairo[sic] = cembalaro or harpsichord builder. The marriage certificate also makes clear that Guarracino’s brothers-in-law Aniello and Michele Perrone were both wood carvers. One of the features of Guarracino’s harpsichords is their elaborately-carved keyscrolls. Sometimes these take the form of elaborate gilt scrollwork, sometimes they are carved in plain wood and are of human or mythological figures or of cornucopiæ. The family relationship between Guarracino and Aniello and Michele Perrone strongly suggests that one or both of them may have been responsible for carving these keywell scrolls. Although the sons of many of Guarracino’s harpsichord-building contemporaries went on also to become harpsichord makers, none of Guarracino’s 8 children continued the tradition built up by their father. One of Guarracino’s sons Francesco, however, did go on to become a Prorationale della Regia Camera (Administrative Officer of the Royal Chamber). Although the last signed and dated instrument by Guarracino was made in 1694 he is known from the archives and through the dealings that he made to have survived at least until 10 January, 1698, by which time he would have been 71 years old. The date of his death is not known but by 1711 he was declared already to have died by his son Francesco Guarracino. His surviving instruments cover dates during the period between 1651 to 1694.
According to the research of Francesco Nocerino, Guarracino worked in Naples in the Strada del Spirito Santo, near to the Banco del Spirito Santo in the archives of which much of Nocerino’s work has concentrated. At first Guarracino rented a workshop there which was connected to the house where he lived. Then, with the passage of time accompanied by his increasing wealth and activity, he was able to rent three apartments in a palazzo with various annexes, a courtyard and a number of workshops. He held accounts in numerous banks throughout Naples and there were regular and consistent movements of funds in and out of these accounts. These included payments for the rent of the buildings he used, and payments for paintings, furniture, glass, instruments, and in respect of the marriage of his daughters. He made numerous loans to persons of all social and economic levels including his own relatives and family. He was also often involved in dealings with used instruments and their repair and resale. Guarracino was obviously a natural survivor: as Francesco Nocerino has pointed out[8], he lived through plagues, an eruption of Vesuvius, a famine and a major earthquake. He lived through a period of enormous political and economic change and of considerable human adversity. He survived and flourished despite competition and the lower prices at which others offered their instruments. He seems to have become wealthy and he accumulated a small fortune. He enjoyed a high standard of living and a high level of respect from his friends, family and professional contemporaries throughout his working career.
Guarracino did not seem to sign his name on the nameboard of his instruments as is more common with other harpsichord and virginal makers. Instead, if at all, he seems to have signed only the top surface of either the top or the bottom keylevers. Virginals, by virtue of their complicated geometry are difficult to alter by increasing their compass and number of notes. However, harpsichords are frequently subjected to alterations, the most common being the alteration of a C/E to c3 short-octave compass to a C to c3 chromatic compass, usually with notes added at both ends of the keyboard to squeeze in the extra notes. Also Guarracino seems often to have made instruments with enharmonic keyboards, often with unusual overall compasses. After the general introduction of sixth-comma temperaments such enharmonic compasses became redundant. Hence these instruments were also often given new keyboards to bring them up to date with the modern literature.
Thus in all of the harpsichords that have been ascribed to him in which the keylevers have been replaced, the signature has disappeared in the process of making the new keyboards. These instruments are therefore all lacking a signature and are otherwise anonymous.
Before 1677[9] Guarracino signs himself on his instruments using the form “Onofrio Guarracino”, but after 1677 he uses the form “Honofrio” (Honofrius in Latin) for his first name. It is not known if Guarracino’s signature in the archival sources follows this tendency.
-Grant O’Brien, Edinburgh, 05 June 2005
