Silvio de Lellis, recorded as Sylvio de Lellis in Canadian sources (1923

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

– 1998 Rome) was an Italian

luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

. He was the second son of Baron de Lellis, a descendant of the family which gave birth to St Camillus de Lellis, in the 16th century. Silvio de Lellis apprenticed as a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

maker and was destined to take over a

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

factory belonging to the family in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, which the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

take-over prevented. He had to practice his craft for a living afterwards. In 1949 he took first prize at the ''Concorso Internazionale di Liuteria'' in Cremona. He was invited in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

to set up a

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

manufacture in the 1970s, but it seems the project was poorly conceived and he remained stranded in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, with almost no money left. He was associated with Frank Ravenda as a violin maker, Ravenda being a music instruments salesman. In 1975, de Lellis moved to Quebec City, where a good

was needed, and after getting a teaching job at the conservatory through the efforts of his apprentice, he finally opened a school of lutherie in that city. De Lellis left Quebec City for Rome in 1979, where he resumed his practice as a luthier. He had his last workshop in Tivoli, some 50 km from Rome, and became widely recognised as a teacher.Riccardo Malavasi, Liutaio a Cremona
"Tirocinio nella bottega del liutaio Riccardo Bergonzi. Ha frequentato dal 1989 al 1991 la scuola di liuteria a Roma sovvenzionata dalla regione Lazio e la comunità europea sotto l’insegnamento del maestro liutaio Silvio de Lellis." De Lellis died in 1998 of a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Lellis, Silvio 1923 births Businesspeople from Rome 1988 deaths Italian luthiers Italian expatriates in Canada