calotta

13:42 Apr 9 

In the end, I went with "archings of the upper and lower bouts" based on the feedback from the client who, as it turns out, was not the author of the text, unfortunately, and the further research I did on the bouts of the violin. Thanks to Maria for providing the reference for the forum. I probably would have found a definitive answer there, but you have to register to post, which I did, but then I never got the verification email which is required, so no luck there. It remains somewhat of a mystery, but at least we're close. ;)

13:32 Apr 8 

This is actually getting more confusing as time goes on. You might be right, Phil, about it possibly being an antonym, because I finally had to query the author, and they said it was "probably the (top/bottom) arching of the instrument." Or if not an antonym, then literally just as the client said, then just referring to the upper and lower part of the arching and not to the center part. It's weird that there's no online trace of this term.

14:11 Apr 2 

Or it could be an antonym - concave curves, as opposed to the convex ones of 'bombatura'.

13:38 Apr 2 

Could it be a synonym of 'bombatura', to avoid repetition? We've had 'calotta' lots of times in an architectural and engineering context, where it means cap or covering or dome.

13:14 Apr 2 

This one talks about "bouts" but doesn't give a diagram. I would love to be able to find a diagram of violin anatomy in Italian so I can at least be sure which part of the violin they are referring to. https://www.theinstrumentplace.com/parts-of-the-violin#

13:10 Apr 2 

This one gives some general info on violin anatomy and includes a labeled diagram: https://www.givensviolins.com/resources/anatomy-of-a-violin/