The earliest surviving piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori is dated to 1720.
Cristofori, an instrument maker in Florence, developed the piano around the start of the 18th century. His key innovation was a mechanism that allowed a player to control volume through touch: pressing a key gently or forcefully changed the hammer’s energy against the string.
Three Cristofori pianos survive today. The oldest is dated 1720, while the others date from 1722 and 1726. They already show important features of the mature piano, including hammers that strike strings and mechanisms that allow the hammers to escape after striking.
Cristofori’s instrument was initially described as a “gravicembalo col piano e forte,” meaning a harpsichord with soft and loud. The shorter name “piano” eventually became standard. The piano’s later development included stronger frames, larger ranges, and changes in stringing, but its basic expressive principle came from Cristofori’s design.