Camillo Camilli was a noted master luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

 in the 18th century. His instruments are prized by string players to this day. Most were made in Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

. He was a pupil of Zanotti but was mainly influenced by Pietro Guarneri

Pietro Guarneri

Pietro Guarneri was an Italian luthier. Sometimes referred to as Pietro da Venezia, he was the son of Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri, filius Andreae, and the last of the Guarneri house of violin-makers...

 of Mantova, the grandfather of Mantovan violin making

Violin making and maintenance

Making an instrument of the violin family may be done in different ways, many of which have changed very little in nearly 500 years since the first violins were made. Some violins, called "bench-made" instruments, are made by a single individual, either a master maker, or an amateur working alone...

. We notice Guarneri's influence in Camilli's, work particularly in the outline, the purfling

Purfling

Purfling is a narrow binding inlaid into the edges of the top and often bottom plates of stringed instruments. Purfling serves to reinforce the plates and prevent cracking along their edges....

, and the way Camillo cuts the notches of the f-hole

Sound hole

A sound hole is an opening in the upper sound board of a stringed musical instrument.The sound holes can have different shapes: round in flat-top guitars, F-holes in instruments from the violin or viol families and in arched-top guitars, rosettes in lutes. Bowed Lyras have D-holes and Mandolins may...

.