Scan 27
A Review Of Ancient And Modern Violin Making, 1899
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1fabulous wood that had "absorbed the music of the murmuring brooks, the sighs of the evening breeze, the songs of birds and stored up the martial blasts of the fierce tornado." No; it was none of these. It was simply "old wood," very old, the older the better.
3There is some doubt as to the identity of the brain that evolved this master stroke of ignorance, and for the credit of his posterity it is to be hoped it will never be definitely known. However, the idea was grasped with enthusiasm, unquestioned and without doubt. As the minds of all makers, students and connoisseurs had always turned to Cremona as the fountain of inspiration and confirmation of ideas, away rushed the horde, who swarmed over Italy like the locusts over Egypt of old. They haunted old churches, inspected old houses, bought and tore them down, while others went sniffing through old monasteries and bought all the beams the monks would let them have, and when enough had been secured to last a couple of centuries, they contentedly set themselves down to work out their longed-for success and immortalize their names. But they did not immortalize to any great extent, for their success was no greater than before.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.