Books › An encyclopedia of the violin, 1925 › scan 30
Scan 30
An encyclopedia of the violin, 1925
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1We may set the date of the actual creation of the violin somewhere between the years 1500 and 1550. It played a part in a fête offered by the city of Rouen to the King Henry III of France and to the Queen Mother Catherine de Médici "on their triumphant and joyous entry into the said town, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, the first and second days of October, 1550." A feature of the entry was an artificial rock, with Orpheus and the Muses, "and in the middle of said rock, Orpheus was seated upon a block of polished marble . . . to his right stood the nine Muses, garbed in white satin, who together rendered madrigals and follias with their violins in excellent voice." In the year 1571, there were seven violins included in the royal band of Queen Elizabeth of England, which North mentions in his memoirs, published in London, in 1846: Item, "to the vyolons, being seven of them, every one of them at 20d. per diem for their wages, and £. 16, 2s, 6d., for their lyveries, in all per annum £. 325, 15. s."
3The fabulous prices paid in these days for the great Stradivarius instruments—I know of many which have become altogether extinct—represent a later development, for the cost of violins was modest enough at first, as is shown by amounts quoted in the fragment of an account of King Charles IX of France where, in many cases, the prices are no more than those paid for ordinary, cheap commercial instruments at the present time.
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