About us

How much is my Strad worth

How much is my Strad worth?

A lot of people write in to say that they have found a violin in their attic with a Stradivari label in it and want to know how much it's worth. Unfortunately, almost all violins with Stradivari labels are cheap copies made in the late 19th- or early 20th century. And the vast majority are of little or no value today. There are only about 600-700 authentic Stradivari instruments that still exist and virtually all of them are catalogued in our database, so if you don't see your instrument already listed on our site, it's almost certainly not an authentic Strad. That goes for Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, Carlo Bergonzi, Domenico Montagnana and most of the other great Italian makers. There just aren't that many undiscovered instruments out there.

I have an instrument I would like to sell. Can I list in on the "For Sale" page?

Yes, as long as it was made by one of the 200+ violin makers in our database. To have the instrument listed, please send as much information as possible (including digital photos if you have them) to info@cozio.com. If the instrument is already included in our database, identify it by its ID number and include any additional information that you have. Make sure you include some contact information so that potential buyers can contact you.

Do you perform custom research projects?

Yes. In addition to the information we publish on our site, we have access to many more photos and other information that we're unable to publish due to copyright restrictions. However, we can use this data to identify instruments or to conduct other specialized research projects. If you have a need, let us know by contacting us at info@cozio.com.

I would like to list my instrument in the database....

Great! We offer a 6-month free subscription to anyyone who helps make the database complete by registering his or her  instrument. Take a look at our Registry page to see what information you should send us.

... but I don't want anyone to know that I'm the owner.

No problem. We understand and respect owners' desire for anonymity and promise not to publish owners' names without their consent. The only exception is if we find the owner named in another published work. In that case, we consider it public knowledge and will publish the name here as well.

How do I list an instrument in the "Stolen Instruments" section?

Just send an email to info@cozio.com with as much information as you can about the instrument and the circumstances under which it was stolen.

I found an error. Who should I tell?

Please let us know about any errors you find. We want to make this resource as accurate as possible. For more information about reporting errors, please refer to the Error Reporting page.

Why isn't the Luthier xxx included in the database?

Because of the enormous amount of data that needs to be processed and organized, we are currently limiting the registry to Italian luthiers (with a few exceptions, like Jakob Stainer, Vincenzo Panormo, Nicolas Lupot) and their instruments made before 1860. Over time, we hope to extend the database to include additional luthiers.

Why is the site called Cozio.com?

In honor of Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio Di Salabue (1755-1840), arguably the first collector and connoisseur of stringed instruments. Upon inheriting his father's estate at the age of 18, Cozio became fascinated by the art of violin making. He was one of the first to recognize the genius of Stradivari, and later became a sponsor of J. B. Guadagnini in his last years. He amassed a large collection of valuable instruments, but was forced by financial problems to sell most of them before he died. He also kept detailed notebooks of makers and instruments, which have proved extremely helpful in understanding the violin-making world in the latter part of the 18th century.

Advertising on Cozio.com

Cozio.com is a very popular site, with more than 20,000 unique visitors per month. As of March, 2008, the site was displaying more than 400,000 pages per month. The audience is predominately composed of professional and amateur string players, and violin makers. For companies wishing to reach this very targeted audience, we offer a number of sponsorship opportunities. These include banner advertising, newsletter sponsorships, and sponsorship of the "Featured Instrument" box that appears on the home page. For more information about these opportunities, please download our media kit and contact us at  info@cozio.com if you have any additional questions.

Who publishes Cozio.com?

Cozio.com is published by Cozio Publishing Ltd, a small, specialty publisher with offices in Boston and Switzerland. For more information about our company, send an email to info@cozio.com.

Our Privacy Policy

We offer a number of services that do not require you to register for an account or provide any personal information to us, such as Cozio Search. In order to provide our full range of services, we may collect the following types of information:

Information you provide - When you sign up for a Cozio Account, we ask you for personal information (such as your name and email address). The only information that is required, however, is your email address so that we can send you an automatically generated password. When you subscribe or purchase something from the Cozio book store, we also request credit card or other payment account information which we pass to our payment provider, Paypal. We do not store this information on our servers.

Cozio cookies - When you visit Cozio.com, we send a cookie - a small file containing a string of characters - to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. The main purpose of the cookie is to keep you logged on to Cozio.com so that you don't need to re-enter your email address and password each time you access a member-only service.

Log information - When you use Cozio services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. However, the logs do uniquely identify you as an individual.

User communications - When you send email or other communication to Cozio.com, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.

Affiliated sites - We offer some of our services in connection with other web sites, such as Tarisio.com. Personal information that you provide to those sites may be sent to us in order to deliver the service. We process such information in accordance with this Policy. The affiliated sites may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Newsletters

When you register for a Cozio.com account, and at any time afterwards, you may choose to subscribe to one or more Cozio newsletter, which are sent out periodically. You will receive these newsletters only if you specifically ask to receive them. You may opt out of these mailing lists at any time by modifying your account information.

Information sharing

Cozio.com only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following limited circumstances:

We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.

We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Cozio.com, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.

If Cozio.com becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for example, or how many users clicked on a particular advertisement. Such information does not identify you individually.

Please contact us at the address below for any additional questions about the management or use of personal data.

Changes to this policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Policy changes).

If you have any additional questions or concerns about this Policy, please feel free to contact us any time through this web site or at Cozio Publishing, Hanflaenderstr. 41, 8640 Rapperswil.

Disclaimer of warranties

Cozio Publishing disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, or operability or availability of information or material displayed in the Cozio Publishing web site. Cozio Publishing disclaims any responsibility for the deletion, failure to store, misdelivery, or untimely delivery of any information or material. Cozio Publishing disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from downloading or accessing any information or material on the Internet through the Cozio Publishing web site.

THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE, AND ALL MATERIALS, INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS," WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER. COZIO PUBLISHING AND ITS LICENSORS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS. Cozio Publishing AND ITS LICENSORS DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES REGARDING THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE. COZIO PUBLISHING AND ITS LICENSORS DISCLAIM, ANY WARRANTIES FOR ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE OBTAINED THROUGH THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE. COZIO PUBLISHING AND ITS LICENSORS DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES FOR SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE OR RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED BY THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE, AS WELL AS FOR ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED IN THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE.

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOU DOWNLOAD OR OTHERWISE OBTAIN MATERIAL OR DATA THROUGH THE USE OF THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF SUCH MATERIAL OR DATA.

SOME STATES OR OTHER JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE AND JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION.

Limitation of Liability

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL COZIO PUBLISHING OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE TO ANY USER ON ACCOUNT OF THAT USER'S USE OR MISUSE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE. ARISING FROM ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE SUBJECT MATTER HEREOF SUCH LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO PREVENT RECOVERY OF DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, AND PUNITIVE DAMAGES WHETHER SUCH CLAIM IS BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, (EVEN IF COZIO PUBLISHING OR ITS LICENSORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES). SUCH LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF AND RELIANCE ON THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE, FROM INABILITY TO USE THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE, OR FROM THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, OR TERMINATION OF THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE (INCLUDING SUCH DAMAGES INCURRED BY THIRD PARTIES). THIS LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES INCURRED BY REASON OF OTHER SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE OR RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED IN THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE, AS WELL AS BY REASON OF ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE OR RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED IN THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE. THIS LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TO THE COSTS OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOST PROFITS, OR LOST DATA. SUCH LIMITATION SHALL FURTHER APPLY WITH RESPECT TO THE PERFORMANCE OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE OR ANY INFORMATION OR MERCHANDISE THAT APPEARS ON, OR IS LINKED OR RELATED IN ANY WAY TO, THE COZIO.COM WEB SITE. SUCH LIMITATION SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY AND TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

SOME STATES OR OTHER JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall Cozio Publishing or its licensors be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning.