Born in Faenza in 1869, Luigi Mozzani soon showed a character endowed with lots of different talents, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. He undertook the study of wind instruments such as the clarinet and the oboe, and he soon moved on to the guitar of which he became in a few years a famous virtuoso. Between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century he was the protagonist of long tours in the United States and Europe; he was also the author of hit pieces for his instrument.
At the same time, he developed an interest in musical instruments making, especially plucked instruments, for which he filed several patents for innovations he conceived, but also an interest in bowed string instruments. He opened a workshop in Cento in 1909 in collaboration with the Carletti family; this was later transformed into an educational institution which was moved in 1929 to Bologna and finally to Rovereto in 1942. These workshops had a character that could be placed between that of schools and that of instrument manufacturers, and had a rather abundant production.
