Melli, Adolfo

Born in 1904 in Reggiolo, a village located between the cities of Mantua and Reggio Emilia, Adolfo Melli made musical instruments alongside his main profession as a carpenter. He was trained with the brothers Dante and Alfredo Guastalla whose workshop he frequented for a few years, from 1925 to 1928. His style shows strong Mantuan influences that derived him from the teaching of his masters. Melli led a disordered life, if the accounts of his contemporaries are worthy of faith, and died in Reggiolo aged just 36.