The pianoforte was directly evolved from the clavichord and the
harpsichord. In 1711, Scipione Maffei gave a detailed account of the first
four instruments, which were built by Bartolommeo Cristofori, named by him
pianoforte, and exhibited in 1709.
Marius, in France, exhibited harpsichords, with hammer action, in 1716;
and Schroter, in Germany, claimed to have invented the pianoforte between
1717 and 1721.
Marius at first was generally credited with the invention, for it was not
until 1738, when Cristofori's instruments had become famous, that the
Italian advanced his claim, and it was in 1763 that he brought forward the
proof of his contention.
Pianos of that period were shaped like the modern grand, the first square
piano being built by Freiderica, an organ builder of Saxony, in 1758. The
first genuine upright was patented in England and the United States by
John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, in 1800.