(b Casale Monferrato, 14 March 1755; d Salabue, 15 Dec 1840). Italian collector of violins. He was of noble birth and endowed with both a natural curiosity about violins and the means to satisfy it. His first great opportunity came in 1775–6 when he acquired ten Stradivari violins, together with tools, patterns and all that remained of Stradivari's violin-making equipment (now owned by the city of Cremona) from the master's son Paolo. For the next 50 years, with the assistance of the Mantegazza family, Cozio avidly traced and where possible purchased fine Italian violins of the Cremonese school, scrupulously noting down their details in his Carteggio (ed. R. Bacchetta, Milan, 1950; partial Eng. trans., 1987). He also gave much assistance and encouragement to many violin makers, including G.B. Guadagnini and Giacomo Rivolta.
Much of Cozio's collection was eventually acquired by another energetic enthusiast, Luigi Tarisio. The instruments included the famous unused Stradivari of 1716 (later known as the ‘Messiah’), sold to Tarisio in 1827 and donated by Hills to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
W.E. Hill: The Salabue Stradivari, ed. R. Harrison (London, 1891)
F. Sacchi: Il conte Cozio di Salabue: cenni biografici (London, 1898; Eng. trans., incl. trans. of his Carteggio and letters, 1898)
R. Disertori: ‘Collezionismo settecentesco e il carteggio del Conte di Salabue’, RMI, liii (1951), 315–22
E. Santoro: Traffici e falsificazioni dei violini di Antonio Stradivari (Cremona, 1973)
E. Santoro: L'epistolario di Cozio di Salabue (1735–1845) (Cremona, 1993) [incl. bibliography]
CHARLES BEARE/CARLO CHIESA