A research project by Marco Pieri (2025)
Introduction
The length of back (LOB) of the cello has not always been what we know today, that is the reference of 756 mm that characterizes the Gore-Booth cello made by Antonio Stradivari in 1710, built on the B forma.
I collected publicly available data for the back length of more than 440 cellos from auctions and collections, starting from 1570.
The size of all these classical cellos is the 4/4 size and should not be misunderstood with 7/8 cellos or lady cellos, which are modern nomenclature.
The minimum length presented in this analysis has been filtered out at 700 mm; below this value few existing classical cellos are sometimes called “violoncello piccolo”, and are often 4 or 5 stringed.
The list is not exhaustive, some inconsistent data has been excluded; it is known that the lengths of some cellos have been modified over time.
However the number of specimens is statistically significant, permitting to have some valuable results from the data analysis.
The collected data contains the following specimens:
- Italian cellos–> 316
- Cremonese cellos –> 163
- Venetian cellos –> 60
- Milanese cellos –> 31
- Brescian cellos –> 14
- Bolognese cellos –> 5
- Roman cellos –> 10
- Florentine cellos –> 10
- Neapolitan cellos –> 6
- Piedmontese cellos –> 3
- Giovanni Battista Guadagnini –> 16
- English cellos –> 65
- French cellos –>44
- Others –> 10
Data is presented in sub-groups differentiated for school of origin (nation or city) or maker. In every chart a trending line is indicated, representing the moving average value. We can consider it as the most probable length value in that specific timeframe.
Analysis of data
EUROPEAN SCHOOLS
The first century of life of the cello is characterized by various sizes from 780 mm to 720 mm, the second century presents a greater level of differentiation going from 790 mm to 700 mm; however from 1700 a decreasing trend is observed.
English school trend has an opposed behaviour: initially in 1700 the preference was for small cellos of about 720 mm which increased consistently to 740 mm in 1800.
French school few years after its first development soon imposed worldwide the 756 mm reference length.
It is clear that from 1725 to 1800 a European musician would have found on the market a cello with an average body length of 730 mm and as short as 700 mm.
Only after 1800 English and French makers re-start to make cellos with longer lengths, taking the B form as reference. Soon French and German factories Factories have flooded the market with this size.
Italian schools
In Italy, from 1670 onwards the trend is decreasing from 760 mm to 720 mm.
The year 1725 seems to be the last one in which the probability distribution covers the 756 mm value. From that year on only in Rome and Florence few cellos still had the conventional value of 756 mm.
In Italy the push for the length reduction is strong and constant up to 1775.
CREMONESE SCHOOL
Between 1660 and 1680, cellos were made mainly in Cremona by the great luthiers Nicolò Amati, Francesco Rugeri, and Andrea Guarneri, with an average length of 770 mm.
Francesco Rugeri reduced the length from 760 mm to 740 mm.
Giuseppe Guarneri filius Andreae made instruments centered around 740 mm.
The first Stradivari’s cellos include Medici Toscano and Lord Aylesford which have the generous 793 mm length.
Within 10 years, around 1707 Antonio Stradivari reduced the length of his instruments to 756 mm creating the reference B forma.
But in 1726 and for the last 10 years of his activity he moved to shorter models, centered at 745 mm and 720 mm.
Between 1725 and 1750, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù and Carlo Bergonzi built instruments measuring 740 mm.
After 1775, Lorenzo Storioni and Giovanni Battista Ceruti built instruments of 730 mm.
VENETIAN SCHOOL
Between 1690 and 1730, Matteo Goffriller built instruments measuring 755 mm. Pietro Guarneri of Venice mantained this size for the next twenty years, alternating with instruments measuring 730 mm and even 700 mm.
Between 1720 and 1740, Domenico Montagnana worked with a reduced size of 740 mm.
Between 1725 and 1750, Santo Serafino chose a size with an averaged value of 725 mm.
MILANESE SCHOOL
Between 1680 and 1710, Carlo Giuseppe Testore and Giovanni Battista Grancino built cellos measuring 750 mm.
Over the next 30 years, Paolo Antonio and Carlo Antonio Testore, starting from the same dimensions as their predecessors, reduced their measurements to 725 mm; from 1740 to 1770, Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi reduced the instruments to 710 mm.
BRESCIAN SCHOOL
Giovanni Battista Rogeri built small models of 730 mm around 1700, Pietro Giacomo Rogeri reduced the size to 730 and 705 mm after 1715.
BOLOGNESE SCHOOL
Before 1700, Giovanni Tononi built instruments measuring 760 mm, Carlo Annibale Tononi had already reduced the size to 750 mm in 1720, and Giovanni Battista Tononi went up to 720 mm twenty years later.
ROMAN SCHOOL
Between 1690 and 1730, David Tecchler built instruments with an average size of 750 mm.
FLORENTINE SCHOOL
In Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the musical instruments collection from the “Luigi Cherubini” Conservatory, several large cellos are kept. Rocco Doni and Bartolomeo Cristofori in the first decades of 18th century made cellos measuring 807 and 780 mm. Later on Gaspero Piattellini made a large model of 796 mm.
Lorenzo Arcangioli worked with a small size 720 mm in 1725.
Giovanni Battista Gabbrielli built models centered on 760 mm in the 1750s and 1760s.
Lorenzo and Tomaso Carcassi ranged between 760 mm and 700 mm around 1770.
NEAPOLETAN SCHOOL
Alessandro Gagliano and Giuseppe Gagliano built instruments measuring 735 and 740 mm, while Raffaele and Antonio Gagliano, after 1825, reduced the size to 715 mm.
GIOVANNI BATTISTA GUADAGNINI
During his long career from 1740 to 1785, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini built instruments with a prevalent dimension of 713 mm.
English school
English makers started using a short model of 725 mm, as it was common in Italy in 1700, but before 1800 a new English size was mature and defined around 740 mm.
After 1825 also the English makers began to be influenced by the French School which had established the B forma to its new standard, and larger cellos became popular.
French school
French school makers from the beginning of their activity found in the B forma the reference size, and were able to impose it across all Europe, influencing also other schools and being convincing to musicians that the Stradivari model was the best in terms of acoustical performing. We are still stuck here today.
Specimens distribution
Conclusions
This analysis shows that the cello’s 756 mm length is nothing more than a convention planned by French makers: soon French and German factories established themselves in the mass production of instruments following this reference size.
Stradivari himself, the inventor of the B forma, no longer made instruments of this size in the last 10 years of his career, and for the following 100 years the 756 mm cello length was almost abandoned in Italy.
Musicians demanded luthiers continually to reduce the cello length, most likely to facilitate the virtuosistic performance of increasingly technically demanding musical compositions, evidently without compromising acoustic quality. It is likely that the diffusion and fame of the cello (among musicians and composers, who have built a vast repertoire of it, including solo ones) has been amplified precisely thanks to its ease of playing due to its reduced size.
This reduction trend was uniform across all Italian violin-making markets, and continued for a century. Therefore, it can be said that this request is independent of the physical proportions (height and hand size) of the various musicians who commissioned the new instruments over time.
Summarizing, for the three main European schools the 4/4 prevalent dimensions in their period of maturity corresponded to three different size ranges:
- The Italian size range is between 710 mm and 760 mm
- The English size range is between 730 mm and 750 mm
- The French size range is between 750 mm and 760 mm
It’s obvious that a smaller instrument will have slightly higher resonant frequencies, but evidently, as the history uncovered by this analysis demonstrates, this shouldn’t have been a problem for musicians of the time.
Today, in the 21st century, being able to choose a cello with a length of 730 mm shouldn’t be a problem, and there shouldn’t be the need to justify its shortened length by calling it a 7/8 or a lady cello.
Indeed, this conscious choice helps us rediscover the history of an instrument that industry has so completely taken over as to have erased the memory of its diverse forms and proportions.
Go to the next research project: Woods used for the cello back by classical Italian makers