Agati

The Agati family was a dynasty of Italian organ builders active in Pistoia, in Tuscany, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its members built some five hundred organs, several of which were exported to France, Egypt and South America, placing the family among the most representative lineages of the craft in the region.

The founder was Pietro Agati, born in Pistoia in 1735. He trained as an apprentice in the workshop of the Tronci family in his native city, and later with Filippo Gatti in Bologna. On establishing his own workshop in Pistoia, he built his second organ for the church of San Vitale, dated 1760, whose case bears a striking resemblance to that of Willem Hermans's instrument in the Holy Spirit church in the same city. From that model he took several stops for his organ at Vignole di Quarrata, dated 1797. Another notable instrument is the organ at Tréppio, Pistoia, dated 1794.

His son Giosuè, born in Pistoia in 1770, continued the work with numerous commissions, among them those at Carmignano (1817), Serravalle Pistoiese and the oratory of the SS. Trinità at Limite sull'Arno (both dated 1821). These organs had a compass of fifty notes, with a short first octave and two pedalboards, one of which was coupled to the Organo grande. The organ at Gavinana (1838), with three manuals, demonstrates the level of complexity the workshop had attained.

The last of the family was Nicomede, also born in Pistoia, who built a large number of small instruments. Having no heirs, he sold the firm in 1883 to his competitor Filippo Tronci, on the condition that the new company be named Agati–Tronci.

The sources raise some doubts: Pietro and Giosuè are both given the same date of death (10 December 1806), and Nicomede's date (1885) is hard to reconcile with the sale of 1883, so these details should be treated with caution. Even so, the whole illustrates the role of the Agati family in Tuscan organ building of their time.