It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory specious by his employers, the Medici family, indicates Piano Lessons the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.

By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Érard firm manufactured pianos disposed by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in ambitious pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced.