Cremona Schools still occupy important position in violin making till now. Amati is the name of a family of Italian violin makers, who flourished at Cremona from about 1549 to 1740. Their standing is considered comparable to those of the Guarneri and Stradivari families.
Andrea Amati (ca. 1505 – ca. 1578) Known as the founding father of the violin, Andrea Amati appears to have been responsible for creating the definitive modern form of the instrument. Andrea became maker in 1525 or even earlier and established workshop in 1538, which marked the beginning of his violin family. In middle 16th century, Andrea was very famous.
Amati's two sons, Antonio and Girolamo, inherited the family workshop after his death. They worked together in the late 1570s (Collectively, they're known as the Brothers Amati) and carried on the family business, refining the art in small degrees. During 1580-1630, the Amati violins occupied a large market, and also influenced many other schools. Their influence read through Italy and beyond, their work being copied in The Netherlands and England.
The brothers went their separate ways in 1588, after which Girolamo ran the family business while Antonio made instruments independently, using his own label. It is therefore assumed that most of the joint-labeled "Antonius & Hieronymus Amati" instruments made between 1588 and Girolamo's death in 1630 were the work of Girolamo alone.
Nicolo Amati (December 3, 1596 – April 12, 1684) was the son of Girolamo Amati. He was the most eminent of the family. In 1630s, Nicolo was the most outstanding teacher in violin making. Apart from his own output of high-quality instruments, he passed on his skills to makers including Andrea Guarneri（1626-1698）, Francesco Rugeri（c. 1620-1698）, Giovai Baptista Rogeri and Antonio Stradivari（c. 1644-1737）. Nicolo Amati's instruments are supremely elegant and well crafted, with excellent tone quality. He created a wider model of violin, known as the “Grand Amati”.
Girolamo Amati, known as Hieronymus II (February 26, 1649 – February 21, 1740)， By the time Girolamo II inherited the shop from his aging father Nicolo in the late 1670s, there were at least a dozen active makers in Cremona, including such luminaries as Francesco and Vincenzo Ruggieri, Andrea Guarneri, and the young Antonio Stradivari. By the time Nicolo died in 1684, leaving the shop entirely in the hands of Girolamo II, Stradivari had already established himself as the new genius of Cremona, and violin-making was expanding quickly to other cities -- especially Milan, Venice, Mantua, Bologna, Rome and Naples.
In 1697, Girolamo II left Cremona and moved to Piacenza for unknown reasons. He returned to Cremona in 1715 and remained there until his death until 1740, but there are very few of his instruments dated after 1700. Since then, the Amati family had hided in the Italian violin making world.
Amati,Nicolo
