The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian harpsichord maker from Padua. He is credited with creating the first true piano around the year 1700 while working for Ferdinando de' Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany
. Cristofori's key innovation was designing a hammer mechanism that strikes the strings, allowing the instrument to produce sounds with varying dynamics—soft and loud—depending on how forcefully the keys are pressed. This was a significant departure from the harpsichord, which plucks strings and cannot vary volume by touch. Cristofori called his invention gravicembalo col piano e forte ("harpsichord that plays soft and loud"), which eventually was shortened to pianoforte and then simply piano
. The earliest surviving pianos built by Cristofori date from the 1720s, and his hammer action mechanism remains the conceptual foundation of modern pianos
. Despite its revolutionary design, the piano did not become widely popular immediately, partly because it was complex to build, but it eventually became the dominant keyboard instrument due to its expressive capabilities
. In summary, Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano around 1700, pioneering the hammer action that allows dynamic control of sound, making him the father of the modern piano
