Sylvio de Lellis

Silvio de Lellis (born in 1923 in Rome, Italy - died in 1998 in Rome) was a luthier.

He was the second son of the Baron Admiral Armando de Lellis, head of the family which gave birth to St Camillus de Lellis, in the 16th century. Silvio was a violin maker and was destined to take over a piano manufacture belonging to the family in Czechoslovakia, which the Communist take-over prevented. He had to practice his craft for a living afterwards. He was invited in Canada to set up a guitar manufacture in the 1970s, but it seems the project was poorly conceived and he remained stranded in Montreal, Quebec, with almost no money left. He was associated with Frank Ravenda as a violin maker, Ravenda being a music instruments salesman. In 1975, de Lellis moved to Quebec City, where a good luthier was needed, and after getting a teaching job at the conservatory through the efforts of his apprentice, he finally opened a school of lutherie in that city. De Lellis left Quebec City for Rome in 1979, where he resumed his practice as a luthier. He had his last workshop in Tivoli, some 50 km from Rome. Lellis died in 1998 of a heart attack.