This book, first published in 2000 following fifteen years of research, is a comprehensive study of the clavichords of Christian Gottlob Hubert (1714–1793). The author, Koen Vermeij, is a distinguished Dutch keyboard-instrument maker and restorer, who has made many beautiful instruments based on Hubert’s designs. He has published numerous articles on keyboard-instrument subjects, and is a founder member of the Netherlands Clavichord Society.

Hubert has been called ‘the Stradivarius of the clavichord’. The eighteen surviving Hubert clavichords (and a nineteenth instrument, lost during the Second World War) are described as completely and precisely as possible. The descriptions focus on facts, on what can be seen and measured. The only exception to this objective approach is in the sections which convey the author’s opinion on the present constructional and musical condition of each instrument.

For keyboard-instrument makers, or those who aspire to this craft, this book offers assistance in designing and building by means of the many measurements given, the materials listed and the detailed pictures.

For musicologists and organologists, this study provides lots of data on the history of the instruments, i.e. information about ownership, restorations and reference material. The tables following the descriptions contain an immense amount of data for making comparisons, and are a basis for research into important subjects such as measurement systems, proportions, scalings and temperaments.

The Hubert Clavichord Data Book is acknowledged as the standard reference work on the clavichords of C. G. Hubert. Since its first publication in 2000, it has been continually updated and revised.