2-969-925 - /Heritage Images

Picco, the Sardinian Minstrel - from a photograph by John Watkins, 1856. 'This young man, who has been astonishing the...musical world by his performances on an instrument of the humblest possible kind - has...had a concert at the Hanover-square Room...when the effects which he produced by means of his poor little instrument were at once so marvellous and so beautiful that a large audience...were filled with wonder and delight...the son of a Piedmontese shepherd, blind from his birth, and destitute of any musical education...his extraordinary attainments were discovered by accident. A sportsman, wandering among the Apennines, was struck by hearing...a singular strain of music, and found that it proceeded from a country lad, playing on the rude instrument we have mentioned. [His father]...was persuaded to allow his son to be taken to Milan, with the view of making something by his talent'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.