Casalbuttano (CR), 14 aprile 1878 - Cremona, september 9, 1937
Son of Secondo and Florinda Frati. At young age he moved in with his brother in Milan, where he worked as a waiter and in free time she went to Brera to see to paint. At age 13 he returned to Casalbuttano where he started working in his father's woodcutter workshop. Passionate about music, at the age of 15, he built himself a guitar, which he learned to play alone. At age 17 he attended in Cremona the violin lessons of master Donato Salamini for a year and a half, and began to practice self-taught the violin making the instruments needed for the musical complexes he played in (violins, violas, cello, bass and mandolin). In 1916 he had to leave for the War from where he returned to Casalbuttano in 1919 and left his earthenware business with his brothers. Dead his wife, Maria Mangella, in 1923 married Maria Piazzi and moved to Cremona, opening her first shop in Via Anguissola, and partecipated the "Applied Arts and Applied Arts exhibition" at the Palazzo Ugolani Dati. Then hi opened a shop in Corso Garibaldi, between Via Oberdan and Via Goito, then moved to the same course but near the church of S. Agata. He had constant relationships with the Cremonese musical world and between 1930 and 1937 the instruments of the Salamini orchestra were all built by him. During his years of activity, he built about one hundred violins, thirty violas, several violoncelli, basses and at least 65 good guitars, including a 13 string guitar in 1929. Through M ° Brasi he sent his instruments also In Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany. In May 1929 he participated in Cremona at the "Art and Handicraft Exhibition" at Palazzo Cittanova. In the first violins he placed a label of music paper with autographed signature, then in Casalbuttano he adopted a label paber and from 1923 the Cremona the label and the brand name "L. Digiuni". In 1949, in Cremona, postmously participation at the "International competion of contemporary lutherie", in which the jury assigned him a special diploma and the enrollment in the Violin Book "instituted at the Museum of Cremona. In the bow instruments he used inspired models Classic Cremonese and reddish yellow paint. In 1922 he patented (No. 230-533) the "violetto", a middle-of-the-way violin and cello playing on his shoulder, which he had built in three specimens, one finished in Germany, a second in the United States, the third one remaining with him, who was donated by the widow, along with a violin, a purple and a cello, to the Museum of Cremona, provided they were exposed to the public along with a photograph of her husband.
