Biagi [Blasi], Luca

(b Perugia, c1545; d 13 Dec 1608). Italian organ builder. He was the son of Marino and Margherita Biagi. He had several brothers and sisters, one of whom, Stefano, was also an organ builder. Nothing is known about Luca's apprenticeship and first works; he is first heard of in connection with the organ of S Maria Nuova in Perugia in 1585: ‘the first and worthy work of the Cavalier Luca of Perugia’. The S Maria Nuova organ was replaced by a new electro-pneumatic instrument in 1960, although its spectacular façade survives. The pipes are arranged in seven groups: two extreme groups of two rows each (the upper rows consisting of dummy pipes), and five central fields, the largest pipe of each being spirally embossed.

Biagi was in Rome by 1593, when the organist Zucchelli obtained work for him on the organs of S Lorenzo in Damaso and the Cappella Gregoriana in S Pietro, and shortly afterwards in the construction of an organ at Frascati. In return, Biagi completed without charge a small transportable organ that Zucchelli had bought from the nuns of Monte Magnapoli and used to hire out to churches for services.

Biagi is known especially for the new organ for S Giovanni in Laterano, commissioned by Clement VIII to be ready for Holy Year 1600. Biagi built the instrument between 1597 and 1599; it was restored by Barthélémy Formentelli between 1987 and 1989. It has a spring chest of 66 channels and 15 stops. It originally had one manual with a compass of F'G'A'–f''', including seven split keys providing enharmonic notes for a, a', a'', a''', d', d'' and d'''; a second manual was added in the 18th century. It probably had a pull-down pedalboard, although this was not mentioned in documents until 1731: in 1776 this was said to have ten pedals. It had six wedge-shaped bellows, a tremulant and the following stops: Principale Profondo 24', Principale Ottava 12', Flauto in VIII, Flauto in XV, Decimaquinta 6', Decimanona 4', Vigesimaseconda 3', Vigesimasesta, Vigesimanona I, Vigesimanona II, Trigesimaterza I, Trigesimaterza II, Trigesimasesta I, Trigesimasesta II, Zampogne-Trombe 12'. Biagi looked after the maintenance of the instrument until his death in 1608.

As a result of the novelty and success of Biagi's Water organ in the Quirinale gardens, completed about 1598, Clement VIII gave him a 20-year privilege in 1600 for the construction of such instruments. Between November 1601 and March 1603 Biagi completed the two-manual organ built by Domenico Benvenuti and Francesco Palmieri (1586–7) for the church of S Maria in Aracoeli, Rome. In 1602 he built the organ of SS Annunziata, Sulmona, and in 1604 he enlarged the keyboard of the organ of Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, by adding three keys (C', D', E') in the bass, and also lowering the pitch by three semitones by shifting all the pipes upwards and adding new ones to the bass end of each stop. His obituary stated that he was ‘supra sexaginta’ when he died.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

F. Bonanni: Gabinetto armonico (Rome, 1722/R, rev. and enlarged 2/1776/R by G. Ceruti with plates by A. van Westerhout; Eng. trans., 1969), 77ff

A. Allegra: ‘La cappella musicale di S. Spirito in Saxia di Roma’, NA, xvii (1940), 26–38

R. Lunelli: L’arte organaria del Rinascimento in Roma e gli organi di S Pietro in Vaticano, dalle origini a tutto il periodo frescobaldiano (Florence, 1958)

F. Luccichenti: ‘Luca Blasi (c1545–1608): profilo di un organaro’, L'organo, xix (1981), 113–31

F. Luccichenti: Documenti per la storia degli organi in S. Giovanni in Laterano a Roma (1427–1984) (Rome, 1994)

GUY OLDHAM/UMBERTO PINESCHI