# Il Cannone > Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, called del Gesu - 1743 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/guarneri-del-gesu/il-cannone-guarneri-paganini-genoa/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-12 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, called del Gesu - **Date:** 1743 - **Medium:** Maple back, ribs and scroll, spruce belly, on a red-brown spirit varnish ground; ebony and other fittings replaced in 2004 as documented replicas of the setup Paganini used - **Dimensions:** Back length 35.4 cm; upper bouts 16.8 cm; middle bouts 11.1 cm; lower bouts 20.7 cm - **Object type:** Musical instrument - **Period:** Italian, eighteenth century (Cremonese violin making) - **Current location:** Sala Paganiniana, Palazzo Tursi (Palazzo Doria-Tursi), Genoa - part of the Musei di Strada Nuova and the seat of the Comune di Genova - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A violin made in Cremona in 1743 by Guarneri del Gesu, given to the teenage Niccolo Paganini after a concert in Livorno and played by him for the rest of his career. He called it his cannon for the power of its sound, and left it in his 1837 will to his native Genoa, which received it in 1851 and has kept it, played but never sold, ever since.Two things separate this record from a repeated legend. First, the violin's care runs through a documented, nameable line of conservators and playing-curators stretching from Eugenio Praga in the late nineteenth century to Bruce Carlson today, a genuinely unusual civic institution in its own right. Second, the widely repeated claim that the instrument has a clean, unbroken history since Paganini's death does not survive close reading: the year Paganini acquired it, the eleven years between his death and its delivery to Genoa, the primary source for its own nickname, and whether its neck is truly untouched 1743 wood are all points where the sources consulted here disagree or simply go silent.What is not in dispute is the one real scare in its recorded history, in 1825, and the fact that, alone among the instruments discussed on this site, it has never once changed hands for money. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1743-c. 1799/1802 (date disputed)** Unknown until the Livron collection `[documented]` (origin) Made in Cremona by Guarneri del Gesu in 1743. Nothing is documented of its ownership between completion and its appearance in the possession of a businessman named Livron; the sources consulted give no detail on Livron himself or how he acquired it. - **c. 1799/1802 (date disputed)-1840** Niccolo Paganini `[documented]` (gift) Given permanently to Paganini by Livron after a concert in Livorno, when Livron refused to accept the instrument back. The exact year is disputed among sources consulted (1799, 1802, or before October 1801). - **1840-1851** Estate of Niccolo Paganini, in the custody of his heirs `[unknown]` (gap) Paganini's 1837 will left the violin to Genoa, but the instrument was not delivered until 14 July 1851, eleven years after his death. No source consulted describes the custodial arrangement during the intervening period. - **1851-present** Comune di Genova, held at Palazzo Tursi `[documented]` (bequest executed) Delivered in person on 14 July 1851 by Paganini's son, Baron Achille Paganini, to the Mayor of Genoa, Antonio Profumo, under the terms of the 1837 will that the violin be perpetually preserved by the city. It has remained continuous municipal property since, has never been sold, and carries no auction or private-sale history. ## Open questions - In what year did Paganini actually receive the violin from Livron? Sources give 1799, 1802, and, on one general account, before October 1801; none of the sources consulted resolves the conflict. - Is there a surviving primary document, letter or diary entry in which Paganini himself uses the phrase Il Cannone, or does the naming rest entirely on later biographical tradition? None was located in this research. - What governed custody of the violin in the eleven years between Paganini's death in 1840 and its delivery to Genoa in 1851? - Who, if anyone, held the conservator's role for the Cannone between Giuseppe Bernardo Lecchi's death in 1967 and the documented 1972 start of Mario Trabucco's tenure as curator-violinist? - Who, if anyone, has succeeded Mario Trabucco as the violin's playing-curator since his death on 4 March 2025? - Is the neck on the instrument today wholly original 1743 material, as luthier Alberto Giordano's public statement implies, or was it reset or grafted during the 1937 consolidation by Cesare Candi? No technical study located in this research settles the question directly. - Where was the violin during the Second World War? No source consulted documents its wartime custody, evacuation, or storage. - What did the October 2025 international conference on conservation methodology conclude, and has Rossi Rognoni and Fioravanti's non-invasive monitoring project published findings? This record was researched before any proceedings could be consulted. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'Il Cannone Guarnerius'. Flagged as tertiary; replace with a museum or specialist catalogue source. - [2] Wikipedia (Italian), 'Cannone (violino)'. Flagged as tertiary. - [3] Comune di Genova / Premio Paganini, 'The Cannone'. - [4] Comune di Genova / Premio Paganini, 'The historical recovery of the Cannone'. - [5] Comune di Genova / Premio Paganini, 'The philosophy for the conservation and use of the Cannone'. - [6] The Strad, 'Looking after Paganini's Il Cannone violin'. - [7] Strings Magazine, 'One Violinist, One Violin... and Six Armed Guards: Francesca Dego on What It's Like to Play Paganini's Il Cannone'. - [8] Tarisio Cozio Archive, property record, Guarneri del Gesu, Cremona 1743, 'Il Cannone, Paganini'. - [9] Tarisio Cozio Carteggio, 'The Paganini Cannon violin'. - [10] Tarisio Cozio Carteggio, 'Eugenio Praga'. - [11] Skinner Inc., 'A Charmed Life: Eugenio Praga and Paganini'. - [12] Wikipedia, 'Mario Trabucco'. Flagged as tertiary. - [13] ANSA Liguria, 'Morto violinista Mario Trabucco, ex curatore Cannone Paganini', 4 March 2025. - [14] Wikipedia, 'Giuseppe Bernardo Lecchi'. Flagged as tertiary. - [15] Wikipedia, 'Cesare Candi'. Flagged as tertiary. - [16] Carlson & Neumann Violins, 'Il Cannone'. - [17] Alberto Giordano, 'Paganini's violin Il Cannone'. - [18] Museums of Genoa (museidigenova.it), 'Il Cannone'. - [19] Museums of Genoa (museidigenova.it), 'Paganini Rooms'. - [20] ANSA Liguria, 'Sorveglianza speciale Cannone Paganini', 22 June 2016. - [21] BBC Classical Music Magazine, 'Paganini's violin: a guide to the great Italian violinist's treasured Il Cannone'. - [22] Arte.it, 'Il Cannone, violino di Niccolo Paganini'. Flagged as a cultural-tourism listing without its own primary citation for the 1825 Bianchi incident; replace with a scholarly biography of Paganini if one can be sourced. - [23] The Strad, 'International Violin Competition Premio Paganini'. - [24] Wikimedia Commons, Category:Il Cannone Guarnerius, and per-file extmetadata (license, author, date) for each image used. - [25] Wikipedia, 'Niccolo Paganini'. Flagged as tertiary; used only for the Livron gift story, Achille's birth date, and Paganini's date and cause of death. - [26] Wikipedia, 'Palazzo Doria-Tursi'. Flagged as tertiary; used only for the building's history and UNESCO listing. - [27] Comune di Genova / Premio Paganini, 'The historical figure of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu'. - [28] Amati Instruments Ltd., maker page, 'Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri'. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.