ABSTRACT
One of the most intriguing aspects of the document is what it tells about Felice Giardini as a customer of John Cox’s shop: the purchases he made – including music, instruments and their accessories – and the services he bought. A number of entries relate to his spending on replacement parts for violins that were probably the property either of his fellow professionals or students, or were destined to be sold on. The radical nature of the alterations – replacing soundboards, necks, bridges and fingerboards – would have had the effect of significantly enhancing the tonal quality of the instruments, and anyone wishing to emulate Giardini’s tone and technique would have considered them prerequisites. The account of Giardini’s numerous purchases of printed music at Cox’s shop represents a new and significant source of information about the repertoire that English audiences heard during the early 1750s.
