ABSTRACT
The Bassanos in both England and Venice were important makers and repairers of instruments. Selfridge-Field has discussed at length what she describes as the 'patronage and cultural links' of the Bassanos. Selfridge-Field works hardest to find 'evidences of some association' between the Bassanos and the Sidney family, particularly Sir Philip, the well-known Elizabethan poet. The Bassanos were watching the 'muring up of a gate lately forced out of the place called Christchurch pretended to be privileged and to be made a harbour for strangers, artificers and other foreigners, to the great hindrance of citizens, especially of the poorer sort'. The Bassanos in England maintained connections with Venice into the seventeenth century. A reason for the Bassanos in England to keep in touch with their relatives in Venice. The Bassanos and their merchant friends and relatives, such as the Locutellos, may have been a conduit through which Italian music was imported to England.
