Lira da Braccio by Giovanni Maria da Brescia, Hill Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

This beautiful Lira da braccio is part of the Hill Collection of musical instruments currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, U.K.

The instrument is made by Giovanni Maria of Brescia, but as shown on the instruments label, he was likely working as an instrument maker in Venice whilst he made this Lira da braccio.

The body outline carries a huge amount of charm which is largely due to the construction method Giovanni Maria used, which is typical of Brescian instruments. It is likely that the ribs were bent freely to a template and then glued directly onto the back, instead of being made on an inside mold as is common in Cremonese instrument construction. The long corners suggest that the ‘C’ bout ribs were bent, and the upper and lower bout ribs were glued to the ‘C’ bout ribs at the corners, before being glued to the top and bottom blocks. This could have been done directly on the back of the instrument (each individual rib glued onto the back separately), or the ribs may have been prepared and then glued onto the back as a whole rib garland.

Above we can see the elongated corners- the ribs are glued flat to one another and thinned at the ends rather than having a steep and short mitre joint. The ribs run right to the end of the corners, providing support for the fragile corners of the back and front plates.

Brescian instruments typically have a wide flat internal edge acting as a flat surface to glue the ribs onto. We can see this flat surface in the photo above. The inside of the back and ribs has been left rough from working with a toothed plane. The toolmarks are visible in the photos.

The ribs are left very thick at 1.8mm, giving a bigger gluing surface because there are no linings inside. There are small corner blocks in each corner.

Interestingly, the grain of the Spruce top block runs horizontally rather than vertically. This feature is also true of the small treble Viol also by Giovanni Maria, suggesting that it was done intentionally.

There is also no bass bar inside this Lira da braccio, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of one ever being inside. It is possible that the Lira da braccio had a soundpost only, without a bass bar, either centrally or under one bridge foot. The front has been left thick to accomodate for this, at around 4.5mm thick in some areas.

The neck would have been added to the body before the front went on, as is typical in early instrument construction (see photo below showing the square edge to the soundboard and cutout in the neck as it butts up against the fingerboard) but this neck seems to have been morticed in, as there is no sign of a nail or wooden pin inside.

The peg box is a work of art in itself, displaying a gilded moresque pattern on a finely carved ‘leaf’ shape with beautifully moulded edgings. The Moresque pattern shows the influence of the Islamic world through trade with Venice at that time and is either painted using gold paint or gilded.

I chose to use gold leaf on the copy of this peg box that I made on one of my own instruments. You can see this instrument here. Another copy of this lira with full historical set up can be seen here.

The strings travel through holes on the front of the peg box behind the nut, and emerge at the back before wrapping around boxwood pegs.

The bourdon / drone strings leave the peg and appear out the side of the peg box, passing over an ebony pin before travelling down to the bridge.