Genova · 1743
Paganini’s violin “Il Cannone”
Few instruments are as closely tied to a city as the Guarneri “del Gesù” that Niccolò Paganini left to Genoa.
The instrument
Made in Cremona in 1743 by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, known as “del Gesù”, the violin belongs to the maker’s late period, when his work became bolder and freer. Paganini called it “il mio cannone violino” — my cannon violin — for the power and depth of its sound, and the name has stayed with it ever since.
Paganini and the Cannone
Paganini (1782–1840) acquired the violin early in his career and played it for the rest of his life, guarding it jealously. When it needed repair in Paris in 1833, the work was entrusted to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who also made a copy so faithful that Paganini struggled to tell the two apart. Paganini later gave the copy to his pupil Camillo Sivori, and it too eventually came to Genoa.
A bequest to the city
In his will Paganini left the Cannone to his native city, “so that it may be perpetually preserved”. After his death the violin was handed over to Genoa in 1851, and it has belonged to the city ever since.
Where to see it
Today the Cannone is displayed, together with the Vuillaume copy, in Palazzo Tursi on Via Garibaldi, part of the Musei di Strada Nuova. To keep it in playing condition it is regularly played by a curator violinist, and on special occasions — including the international Paganini Competition — it is heard in concert.
Why it matters to violin makers
For a Genoese maker the Cannone is more than a museum piece: it is a living model. Its arching, its wide and powerful sound and the freedom of its outline continue to inspire new instruments, and it is one of the models available for commissions at the workshop.