26 September 2012
Dear Cozio User,
We have some very exciting news to share: Cozio has just been acquired by Tarisio, the auction house dedicated to fine musical instruments and bows.
In 2003, Cozio was launched as a vital resource for lovers of fine instruments like yourself. The site has grown exponentially and the Cozio database now contains reference information for more than 50,000 instruments and boasts the deepest catalog of photographs and provenance on the web.
As one of the leading authorities in the field of stringed instruments Tarisio is ideally positioned to enable Cozio’s continued growth and development. While Cozio will continue to operate independently, much of Tarisio’s existing photo archives will be merged with ours creating an even richer archive for all.
Later this year we will launch a new and redesigned Cozio website. The new site will feature a host of added benefits, such as increased makers and instruments, greater privacy for owners, higher quality images as well as frequent curated content from recognized authorities in our field.
For the time being the Cozio site will remain mostly unchanged as we work behind the scenes to build these improvements. The only noticeable change we have implemented is the removal of banner advertisements and featured instruments.
On behalf of all of us at Cozio, we are thrilled to make this announcement, and we look forward to Cozio’s exciting future.
Sincerely,
Cozio
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.
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
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 give priority to those makers who are of most interest to
professional stringed players and collectors. Over time, however, we hope to extend the database to
include additional luthiers, and especially contemporary makers.
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.
Who publishes
Cozio.com?
Cozio.com is published by Cozio LLC a small publishing company
based in the United States. Cozio was started in 2003 by Philip E. Margolis.
For 15 years, Margolis was a technical author who wrote
numerous books about computers, including
C: A Software Engineering Approach
and the
Random House Webster's Computer and Internet Dictionary. In
1996, he launched the PC Webopedia, which was acquired by Internet.com in 1998.
Over the next few years, Margolis launched a search engine
technology company and worked as a partner of a Warsaw-based venture capital
firm called E-Katalyst. In 2002, he became interested in the violin market
through his wife, who is a professional violinist. Amazed at how difficult it is
to find basic information about antique instruments, he began collecting data
and storing it in a database. In 2003, the web site
www.cozio.com was launched as a way to make
this information available to the wider public. For more information about
Cozio, please email
info@cozio.com.
About the
Cozio Search Engine
The Cozio search box integrates two search engines. The first searches
through the Cozio database of instruments, makers, owners and musicians. The
second searches the Cozio digital library, containing more than 2,000 scanned
books, magazines and catalogs. Searches entered in the search box on the top
menu, or on the advanced
search page, will search through both databases and list the results in
separate sections. If you only want to search through the digital library, go
directly to the Digital Library
page and enter your search there. Note also that you can search within a
specific document by selecting the document from the results list and then
entering your search on the document's page.
Both search engines support syntax similar to other search engines,
especially Google. This means that if you enter multiple words separated by a
space, the search will return records containing ALL terms. In the case of the
digital library, it will return all documents where all of the terms appear
appear on the same page. You can also search for a multi-word phrase by
enclosing the phrase in double quotes. For example:
"Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari"
You can exclude words by preceding them with a hyphen, and you can search for
words beginning or ending with the specified characters by using the '*'
wildcard. This is especially useful for names that have multiple spellings. For
example, if you enter the search:
"Francesco Rug*"
the search engine will return all records containing the name "Franceso
Ruggeri," "Francesco Rugeri," and "Francesco Ruggieri". Likewise, searching for:
Landol*
will return all records relating to both "Landolfi" and "Landolphi".
You can also accomplish this by using the OR operator. For example:
Serafin OR Seraphin
For complete details about the search engine syntax, take a look at
Google's description.
We do very little advertising and rely primarily on word-of-mouth to let
people know that about the web site and what it offers. Our greatest resource,
therefore, are the 3,000+ people who have already signed up to be Cozio members.
To encourage our existing members to spread the word, we offer a free 3-month
subscription extension for every new member brought to us. If you're a Cozio
member and you persuade a friend or colleague to sign up, let us know by sending
an email to info@cozio.com. We'll then
extend your own subscription by three months. There are just three rules:
1) You must be a Cozio member with a non-expired subscription.
2) You must tell us about the referral within 3 days of its occurrence.
3) The offer is valid only if your friend signs up for a 1-year or 2-year
subscription.
Cozio Publishing ("we") are
committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy (together with our
acceptable use policy and
any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal
data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.
Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices
regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
Information We May Collect From You
We may collect and process the following data about you:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site
www.cozio.com ("our site"). This includes information provided at the time of
subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services.
We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site.
- If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
- We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research
purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
- Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the
fulfilment of your orders.
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traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether
this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources
that you access.
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We may collect information about your computer, including where available
your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration
and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data
about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any
individual.
For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet
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Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables
you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this
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Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not
completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data,
we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any
transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we
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We use information held about you in the following ways:
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you choose to do so.
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When you register for a Cozio.com account, and at any time
afterwards, you may choose to subscribe to one or more Cozio newsletters, which
are sent out periodically. You will receive these newsletters only if you
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time by modifying your account information.
Disclosure Of Your Information
We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
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we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of
such business or assets.
- If Cozio Publishing LLC or substantially all of its assets are acquired
by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers
will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order
to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our
acceptable use policy.
Your Rights
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing
purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend
to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information
to any third party for such purposes. You can also exercise the right at any
time by contacting us by email at info@cozio.com.
Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of
our partners, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these
websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and
that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please
check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Changes To Our Privacy 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.
This acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you and
Cozio Publishing ("we" or "us") under which you may use our products
and services ("Services").
Your use of our Services means that you accept, and agree to
abide by, all the policies in this policy.
Prohibited Activities
You may use our Services only for lawful purposes. You may not
use them:
- in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or
international law or regulation.
- in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any
unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
- for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in
any way.
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any material which does not comply with our
Content Standards.
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unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other
form of similar solicitation (spam).
- to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material
that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs,
keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs
or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the
operation of any computer software or hardware.
We reserve the right to remove any Forum posts which might be
held to be defamatory or otherwise in breach of our
Content Standards, as
determined in our sole discretion.
If, while using our Services, you post any material on a website
or newsgroup, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that:
- you have the rights to make use the material in that manner;
and
- such use will not infringe the rights of any third party or
any law.
We do not endorse any material posted by you or any other third
party, or any opinion, recommendation or advice expressed therein,
and we expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with
such material.
Our Content Standards
These content standards apply to any and all material which you
contribute to our site ("Contributions"), and to any interactive
services associated with it.
You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as
well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any
contribution as well as to its whole.
Contributions must:
- be accurate (where they state facts).
- be genuinely held (where they state opinions).
- comply with applicable law in the U.S. and in any country
from which they are posted.
Contributions must not:
- contain any material which is defamatory of any person.
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- be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party,
such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
- promote any illegal activity.
- be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your
identity or affiliation with any person.
- give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is
not the case.
- advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way
of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Take Down Policy
All material posted on our site must comply with our Acceptable
Use Policy. We reserve the right at all times to take down any
material we consider to be unacceptable or illegal.
If you consider any material on our site to be illegal or
unacceptable and wish to complain, please send an email to
info@cozio.com outlining the
nature of your complaint, quoting the content in full and specifying
the URL of the page the content is on.
On receipt of your valid notice, we will investigate the
complaint and may, as a result, remove or edit the content about
which you are complaining. In any event, we will endeavour to
respond to your complaint within 5 working days.
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, is delivery, 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.
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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
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REGARDING THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
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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.