(fl ?mid-16th century). German lute maker, active mainly in Italy. He was a cousin of Luca and Sigismondo (i) Maler and married Angela, the daughter of Giovanni Gisoli (also known as Batilori), with whom Luca Maler made a contract in 1527. In 1530 Maler's son Sigismondo (ii) was apprenticed to Unverdorben for a year, and Unverdorben is mentioned as a beneficiary in Luca Maler's first will, also dated 1530. Shortly afterwards he appears to have moved to Venice, although legacies to the daughters of ‘Marco Oserdoni, lute maker of Venice’ in Maler's second and last will of 1552 suggest that the family connection was maintained.
The Fugger inventory of 1566 (see Stockbauer, and Smith) includes ‘Eine grosse alte Lauten von Max Unverdorben’. A few of his instruments survive, though none are in original condition. These include a fine multi-rib yew instrument (in Fenton House, London), labelled ‘Marx Unverdorben in Venetia 158…’, which was rebuilt as a 13-course baroque lute by Buchstetter of Regensburg in 1747. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a very striking lute back composed of a complex and unsupported marquetry of different woods (no.193-1882). The Museo Municipal della Musica, Barcelona, has a seven-course lute with a 13-rib back of quilted maple (no.408). The Lobkowitz collection in the Czech Republic has one instrument converted in the 18th century (this was formerly in the Národní Muzeum, Prague). Another instrument, remade as a theorbo, is in the Museo di Strumenti Musicali, Rome (no.37).
The stylistic disparity and the date of the Fenton House lute suggest that at least two generations of Unverdorbens are represented in the surviving instruments.
VannesE
J. Stockbauer: Die Kunstbestrebungen am bayerischen Hofe (Vienna, 1874/R)
M.W. Prynne: ‘A Note on Marx Unverdorben’, LSJ, i (1959), 58 only
C. Challen: ‘The Unverdorben Lute at Fenton House: Conservation in Practice’, EMc, vii (1979), 166–73
D.A. Smith: ‘The Musical Instrument Inventory of Raymond Fugger’, GSJ, xxxiii (1980), 36–44
C. Gonzales Marcos: ‘Les Luths du Museu de la Můsica de Barcelone’, Musique ancienne, xix (1985), 62–77
S. Toffolo: Antichi strumenti veneziani: 1500–1800, quattro secoli di liuteria e cembalaria (Venice, 1987)
S. Pasqual: ‘Laux Maler (c.1485–1552)’, Bollettino della societŕ italiana del liuto, xxii (1997), 3–11; xxiii (1997), 4–13; Eng. trans. in Lute News, no.51 (1999), 5–15
LYNDA SAYCE