Vincenzo Trusiano Panormo

An extremely important influence on English violin making in the early eighteenth century, Vincenzo Panormo was born Vincenzo Trusiano, in Monreale, Sicily in about 1734, later taking his professional name from the Latin for nearby Palermo. He first worked as a general musical instrument maker, and several woodwind instruments are branded with his name. He left Sicily for Rome, where his first son, François, was born in 1763. His second son, Joseph, was born in Naples in 1767 and the family made their way via Marseilles to Paris by 1783. It has been assumed that the French Revolution drove him from there in 1789, by which time he was living in Dublin and working for Thomas Perry. By 1791 he was working for John Betts in London, where his experience and knowledge of Italian and French work paid rich dividends for the Betts workshop and others working there. His work from Paris, Dublin and London is all well recorded, but authentic labels are rare, many being made up later by his sons for instruments that may have previously borne the labels of his various employers. His work is very sophisticated, following Stradivarian ideas in modelling, but with very personal touches throughout. His later work was made with the assistance of his sons, Joseph and George.