{"id":867,"date":"2017-07-06T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/?p=867"},"modified":"2017-06-16T16:05:39","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T16:05:39","slug":"867","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/2017\/07\/06\/867\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Work Placement at St Cecilia’s Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this week’s blog, Alberto Bonza, an apprentice from Italy, describes his time working with conservators from the CRC…<\/em><\/p>\n

I am writing this blog post at the end of my six weeks of volunteering at the CRC, which I think came far too soon!<\/p>\n

I am an apprentice keyboard instruments maker and restorer, working with my father in our family business in Italy. Before my placement in Edinburgh, I worked on various early instruments, such as the 1788 Taskin harpsichord in Milan ‘Castello Sforzesco’,<\/em> and the 1782 J. A. Stein fortepiano. My most recent work has been the reconstruction of the chromatic harpsichord owned by the Prince of Venosa, Carlo Gesualdo. A few months ago, I decided to contact Musical Instrument Conservator, Jonathan Santa Maria Bouquet, to see if I could volunteer at the CRC in order to improve my skills.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I am very grateful to all of the CRC staff for their help and support, especially to Jonathan, who introduced me to St Cecilia’s Hall<\/a> and gave me the opportunity to work on the instrument collection as a part of the recent renovation of the museum.<\/p>\n

My tasks during my placement consisted of cleaning, tuning and eventually stringing of the early keyboard instruments, specifically harpsichords, pianos, clavichords, virginals and spinets. I also took part in some maintenance operations when needed, even though the collection is already in a very good condition, and almost all the instruments are currently playable.<\/p>\n

\"Alberto

Alberto cleaning a 1668 Keene virginal<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Alberto

Alberto tuning a 1620 Anonymous Italian harpsichord<\/p><\/div>\n

The tasks were similar to what I usually do in my workshop, but here I had the chance to work on some of the most important extant instruments, whilst learning different operating methods and techniques from the staff of St Cecilia\u2019s Hall.<\/p>\n

I also had the chance to work at the CRC library under the supervision of Special Collections Conservator, Emily Hick, where I assisted in the conservation of a part of its impressive book collection. Whilst not directly related to my job, I found the experience useful, and I learnt other techniques that can also be applied in my field.<\/p>\n

Overall, my time at St Cecilia\u2019s Hall and the CRC has been an extremely valuable experience. I gained further knowledge on the conservation of instruments and now have a better understanding of working practices in a museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this week’s blog, Alberto Bonza, an apprentice from Italy, describes his time working with conservators from the CRC… I am writing this blog post at the end of my six weeks of volunteering at the CRC, which I think … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[78],"tags":[3,87,128],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7lwn4-867","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}