Benjamin Hebbert, one of the world’s leading violin experts, explores the rise of Cremona as the centre for instrument-making through the work of Andrea Amati during the latter half of the 16th century. The lecture will focus on Amati’s earliest violin (1564) now held at the Ashmolean as well as a presentation – with live performance by Peter Sheppard Skaerved – of the earliest Amati violin in private ownership (1572), both made for Catherine de Medici’s musicians.