(b c1500/10; d c1565). Lute maker, possibly of German origin, active in Italy. He was married to Margarita del fu Michele Strazarolo and was in Bologna from at least 1546 until at least 1564. He is sometimes described as ‘Romano’ in Bolognese documents, and may have previously worked in Rome. He has frequently been confused with another Hans Frei, son-in-law of Albrecht Dürer, who may perhaps have been the father of the lute maker; the error originated with Baron in 1727.
Frei's workshops are recorded first in the parish of San Giacomo dei Carbonesi (by 1548), and later in the Via San Mamolo close to that of Luca Maler (from 1554). The San Mamolo workshop was continued after Frei’s death by his sons, Giovanni Giulio (d 1622) and Gasparo (d 1626). In spite of numerous records of real estate purchase and financial transactions, Frei's business seems to have been on a much smaller scale than Maler's, but his lutes were renowned. John Evelyn recorded a visit to Bologna in 1645: ‘This place has likewise been famous for Lutes made by the old Masters Mollen (i.e. Maler), Hans Frey, Nic: Sconvelt, which were of extraordinary price, & were most of them German Workmen’. In 1648 Jacques Gautier mentioned in correspondence with Huygens (see Jonckbloet and Land) that Frei had worked at Bologna a little later than Luca Maler.
There are eight lutes attributed to Frei, in Bologna, Copenhagen, Kremsmünster, Prague, Stockholm, Vienna and Warwick. Those in Vienna (two in the Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Warwick are very alike and are almost certainly genuine. They have long narrow bodies of few ribs, characteristics of the ‘Bologna’ style which they share with the Maler's lutes. Their labels are handwritten in large gothic letters, giving only Frei's name. All three have been converted to 11-course Baroque lutes, though they probably originated as large tenor lutes with only six courses. The Bologna instrument (in the Civico Museo Medievale) is dated 1597 and may be the work of Giovanni (Hans) Giulio Frei. The other instruments exhibit variations in shape and labelling style, and may not be genuine.
VannesE
J. Evelyn: Kalendarium: de vita propria (MSS, private collection, 1620–1706); ed. E.S. de Beer as The Diary of John Evelyn (Oxford, 1955)
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretisch und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg, 1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976 as Study of the Lute)
W.J.A. Jonckbloet and J.P.N. Land, eds.: Correspondance et oeuvres musicales de Constantin Huygens (Leiden, 1882)
M.W. Prynne: ‘An Unrecorded Lute by Hans Frei’, GSJ, ii (1949), 47–51; iv (1951), 46–7
M.W. Prynne: ‘The Old Bologna Lute-Makers’, LSJ, v (1963), 18–31
L. Cervelli: ‘Brevi noti sui liutai tedeschi attivi in Italia dal secolo XVIo al XVIIIo’, AnMc, no.5 (1968), 299–337
E. Pohlmann: Laute, Theorbe, Chitarrone (Bremen, 1968, rev., enlarged 5/1982)
R. Bletschacher: Die Lauten- und Geigenmacher des Füssener Landes (Hofheim am Taunus, 1978)
A. Layer: Die Allgäuer Lauten- und Geigenmacher (Augsburg, 1978)
S. Pasqual and R. Regazzi: Le radici del successo della liuteria a Bologna (Bologna, 1998)
LYNDA SAYCE