Girolamo Zenti

He is known as the probable inventor of the bentside spinet and for having traveled unusually extensively to practice his trade at the courts of Europe, including Rome, Florence, Paris, London and Stockholm.

At some point he was probably in service of the Medici family in Florence, for an inventory made at Bartolomeo Cristofori's arrival there in 1700 lists six Zenti instruments.

The final clue giving this theory support is that in France the bentside spinet was called: espinette á l'italienne.

A true inner instrument of thinwalled cypress in an ornate outer box, single scale in brass.

[6] A harpsichord, now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, dated to the year of his death in 1666, is a single manual, 2x8', true inner-outer instrument, notably restored by Cristofori's apprentice, Giovani Ferrini, bearing the inscription: "HIERONYMUS ZENTI FECIT ROMAE A.S. MDCLXVI/ JOANNES FERRINI FLORENTINVS RESTAVRAVIT MDCCLV" [7] The Metropolitan museum also houses an octave spinet probably by Zenti of unusually small size, possibly made for a child.