Nicolò Amati (3 December 1596 - April 12, 1684) was an Italian luthier from Cremona, a member of the Amati family.
The founder of the Cremona school was Andrea Amati (c. 1520–c. 1578), whose earliest violins date from about 1564. His labels bore the name Amadus, and he is credited with the basic design of the modern violin. His sons were Antonio Amati and Girolamo or Geronimo Amati, who worked together and followed closely their father’s patterns in making violins of graceful shape and sweet tone.
Nicolo Amati favoured a wider model than before, known in modern times as the 'Grand Amati', and these violins are most sought after. Well curved, long-cornered, and strongly and cleanly purfled they perhaps represent the height of elegance in violin making.
The Amati instruments were characterized by mathematically derived outlines and transparent amber-colored varnish. Nicolò Amati (1596–1684), son of Girolamo, brought the Amati violin to its height after c. 1645. Andrea Guarneri, grandfather of Giuseppe "del Gesu" Guarneri was a pupil of Nicolò. Also at least one Antonio Stradivari label, dated 1666, reads, “Alumnus Nicolais Amati” - student of Nicolò Amati. Other documented pupils of Nicolò include Jacob Railich, Bartolomeo Pasta, Batrolomeo Cristofori, Giacomo Genarro, and Giovanni Battista Rogeri. Nicolò’s son, Girolamo (1649–1740), was the last of his line to achieve distinction.
The Latin forms of the first names, Andreas, Antonius, Hieronymus, and Nicolaus, were generally used on the violin labels, and the family name was sometimes Latinized as Amatus.
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