Produced by Ron Swanson
[_Frontispiece_: PAGANINI'S GIUSEPPE GUARNERI. Date 1743. (IN THE
MUNICIPAL PALACE, GENOA.)]
THE VIOLIN
ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS
BY
GEORGE HART
WITH
_NUMEROUS WOOD ENGRAVINGS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE WORKS OF STRADIVARI,
GUARNERI, AMATI, AND OTHERS, AND ADDITIONS AND EMENDATIONS BY THE
AUTHOR'S SON AND TOWRY PIPER_
"To perfect that wonder of travel--the locomotive--has perhaps not
required the expenditure of more mental strength and application, than
to perfect that wonder of music--the Violin." W. E. GLADSTONE.
LONDON
DULAU AND CO., LIMITED, 37, SOHO SQUARE, W.
SCHOTT AND CO., 159, REGENT STREET.
1909
[_All rights reserved._]
PREFACE TO THE ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION
The favourable reception accorded to the previous editions of this
work has not only added greatly to the pleasure attending the
preparation of a new and revised edition, but has encouraged me to
spare no effort within my power to render the volume as interesting
and complete as possible. In making these endeavours, the bulk of the
book has been necessarily increased by additional information, spread
over all the sections of the work, but chiefly on those which treat of
the Early History of the leading instrument, and the Italian branches
of the subject.
It is in connection with the Italian divisions of the book that the
reader will discover, I venture to hope, information which he will
regard as interesting in its character, besides being of some
historical value. The greater part of this new matter has been
obtained from original MSS. belonging to the trustees of the Civic
Museum at Cremona, which Institution is located in the palace
bequeathed to the citizens, together with its contents, by the
Marchese Ponzoni. In the year 1872, Dr. F. Robolotti, the learned
historiographer of the town, and a distinguished physician, and the
Marchese Senatore Araldi Erizzo, presented to the Institution referred
to an important collection of rare books and documents illustrative of
the history of the City of Cremona. Among these are two sets of MSS.,
numbered respectively 729 and 431, the contents of which shed much
light on the Italian sections of our subject, and constitute the
source of the principal portion of the additional information
contained in the following pages. The first-named MS. is the work of
Don Desiderio Arisi, a monk of the order of St. Jerome, who in the
quiet of his cell in the Convent of St. Sigismondo set himself the
task of writing brief notices of Cremonese worthies. The MS. is dated
1720, and includes a most interesting account of the patronage enjoyed
by Antonio Stradivari, together with several items of information of
more or less worth, relative to the famous Violin-maker. In passing,
it may be mentioned that Don Desiderio Arisi was intimate with
Stradivari, and gained his knowledge of the facts he recorded from the
artist himself. The second-named MSS., from which extracts have been
made, are dated 1823. These contain references to the principal makers
of Cremona, combined with critical remarks on their works from the pen
of Vincenzo Lancetti, a Cremonese poet and biographer. The information
contained in these MSS. was chiefly received from Count Cozio di
Salabue in the course of correspondence between him and Lancetti.
Nearly the whole of the extracts to which the reader's attention has
been directed were given to me as far back as the year 1875, when the
original edition of this work was in the press. Finding it impossible
to make adequate use of them, in consequence of the volume being
partly printed, I decided to insert a few items at the end of the
notice of Antonio Stradivari, and to hold over the remainder in order
to distribute the information among the notices of the several makers
in a future edition.
I am indebted for the knowledge of the existence of the Arisi and
Lancetti MSS., and for their contents, to my friend Signor Federico
Sacchi,[1] who during his researches among the Robolotti collection
had free access to all the original documents, and whose family has
long lived near the house occupied by Stradivari. With these
advantages, it is almost needless to remark that my friend possessed
ample means of aiding me in my endeavours to learn much concerning the
makers of his native city. Taking as he does a deep and enthusiastic
interest in the past history of Cremonese art, he spared no effort to
obtain for me all the information possible. To him I am also indebted
for the contents of the correspondence relative to the purchase, by
Count Cozio di Salabue, of the tools used by Antonio Stradivari, and
for the same having been placed at my disposal by the Marquis dalla
Valle. In making these acknowledgments, I desire to tender Signor
Sacchi my warmest thanks for the interest he has taken in my
undertaking.[2]
[Footnote 1: Signor Sacchi is the author of--
1. "Cenni sulla vita e le opere di Agostino Aglio pittor Cremonese."
Cremona, 1868. 8vo.
2. "Notizie pittoriche Cremonesi." Cremona, 1872. 4to.
3. "I Tipografi Ebrei di Soncino." Cremona, 1877. 4to.
4. "Annali Tipografici della Cittae provincia di Cremona,"
and many other memoirs on Cremonese printers and painters.]
[Footnote 2: Signor Sacchi died in 1902.--ED.]
The Section containing the Anecdotes has been recruited by additional
Miscellanea, including "Hudibras and the Champion Crowdero." In
placing this piece of wit and humour before my readers, I have
endeavoured to do so in a form as connected as possible, by the
selection of passages likely to conduce to that end, without
trespassing too much on space, and on the reader's patience.
I am indebted to Mr. G. D. Bishopp for the table containing the amount
of tension of Violin strings, and their downward pressure. The
information therein contained will doubtless be acceptable to many of
my readers.
I owe to M. le Chevalier Kraus, of Florence, the pleasure of including
among the engravings those of the instruments made by Antonio
Stradivari for the Grand Duke of Florence, he having obtained for me
the necessary photographs.
In conclusion, I have to thank my young friend Mr. Allan Fea for the
two illustrations forming the head and tail pieces to "Hudibras and
the Champion Crowdero."
28, _Wardour Street, London_, 1884.
PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITORS
Pending the completion of a more costly revised version of the late
Mr. Hart's work, the editors, in compliance with what seems to be a
widespread public desire, have decided to reprint the volume, as
issued in popular form and finally corrected by the author in 1887,
but with additions and certain emendations desirable in order to bring
it into accord with the present state of knowledge, and to enhance its
value as a work of reference. To this end the names of a considerable
number of makers, either unknown at the time, or not deemed of
sufficient prominence for insertion in the edition of 1887, have been
incorporated in the text, together with particulars of the distinctive
features of their work; and the notices relating to others have, where
needful, been modified or recast. In other respects the book remains
substantially as the author left it.
28 _Wardour Street_
_November_, 1909.
CONTENTS
SECTION I.--THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.
PAGE
1.--General observations--Early History involved in obscurity and
vague conjecture--Jubal, Orpheus, and Apollo--Views of Early
Historians of Music, as to Asiatic and Scandinavian origin
respectively--Ravanon, King of Ceylon, and the
"Ravanastron"--Researches of Sanscrit Scholars--Suggested Arabian
origin of the Ribeca, or Rebec, and the Rehab of the Moors--Early
Egyptian instruments--Moorish musical influence in Spain--The
Troubadours and Trouveres in Northern France, and the Gigeours of
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11
2.--Early evidence of Bowed Instruments in the north of
Europe--Presumed Scandinavian origin of the German Geige--The Hon.
Roger North's "Memoirs of Music"--Martinus Gerbertus, his "De Cantu et
Musica Sacra"--Paul Lacroix' "Arts of the Middle Ages"--Earliest known
representations of Bowed Instruments, sixth to ninth century--The
Manuscript of St. Blasius--The Cheli or Chelys--Saxon Fiddle in the
Cottonian Manuscripts, and in Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes"--The
early Saxons' love of Music--The Saxon Fithele in the time of the
Norman Conquest--The Geige in France, and the Jongleurs, "dancers,
jugglers, and buffoons"--Domestic Music in Germany and the Low
Countries in the sixteenth century--The Viol and the Madrigal--Music
in Italy--Adrian Willaert, "The Father of the Madrigal"--Northern
Musicians attracted to Italian Courts--Development of the Madrigal in
Italy--High standard of early Italian work, but under German
teaching--The Viols of Brensius of Bologna--Silvestro Ganassi, his
work on the Viol--Duiffoprugcar and Gasparo da Salo and the
development of the Violin--The Fretted Finger-board--The Violono or
Bass Viol--Five-stringed Viols--The three-stringed Fiddle, or Geige,
attributed to Andrea Amati, altered by the Brothers Mantegazza to a
four-stringed Violin--Advent of the four-stringed Violin ascribed to
Gasparo da Salo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-26