Baroque music, from the early madrigals of Monteverdi to the later concertos of Corelli and Vivaldi, was born in Italy, home to the great violin makers of Cremona: Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri del Gesù.

The five-course guitar, less daunting perhaps than the 11-course baroque lute, was known to Italians as the chitarra spagnuola. It became fashionable around 1600 and was widely used, at first, for the strummed chord sequences of dance music and accompaniments. However, a long line of virtuosi including Foscarini, Corbetta, Granata, Pellegrini, and Roncalli soon began to produce sophisticated compositions for the instrument.

Nearly 200 years later, Italy became the likely birthplace of the six single-string guitar in the workshop of Giovanni Battista Fabricatore, the patriarch of a dynasty of guitar makers that lasted over half a century.