Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 301
Scan 301
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 273. See the scan on archive.org.
1sibilities of the instrument rapidly spread. With the advent of Vitali, Corelli, Vivaldi, Locatelli and others of their time, love of the violin and its music became very general and princes of state and church began to form collections for their private use. Violin making likewise spread very rapidly over Italy, Germany, France and finally was introduced into England, and the makers Cremona, Brescia and Venice probably owed not a little to the collaboration of the contemporary players already mentioned as well as of others who might be named.
3The church also, appreciating the value of the violin and kindred instruments, assembled sets for use in their church services, and emperors, kings and princes collected the choicest violins and cellos for their private home.
5Thus violin collecting began and private collectors who were usually amateur players also sought out their favorite instruments in the same manner as at the present time.
7Violinists then, as to-day, were often collectors and some of them operated on a large scale. They had better opportunities than others, and those with business instinct assembled collections, generally of a few violins and sometimes of many, which they sold to their pupils and others. The public has always, in a certain sense, placed a premium on violins which have been in the possession of famous players—not always with good reason.
9The most famous amateur collector of Italy undoubtedly was Count Cozio di Salabue, who, being an ardent admirer of Stradivarius, formed a large collection of both his instruments and his pupils; also the finest examples of Guarnerius and earlier makers. He was a patron of J. B. Guadagnini and possessed many of his violins which he appears to have bought as an investment.
11This great collection contained many of the very choicest works of Stradivarius (including the famous "Messiah")—all that remained in the family having been purchased in 1775 from Paola Stradivarius, Antonio's son—the lot comprising ten instruments. Paganini owned a quartet of Stradivarii which were sold at his death. One of the violins of this quartet is now owned in New York.
13Other Italian noblemen were intelligent collectors; their instruments, however, like that of Count Cozio di Salabue, were forced on the market by the financial depression which fell on Italy after the Napoleonic Wars. Count Cozio began to dispose of his large collection, containing perhaps a hundred or more instruments, in 1801, and at his death in 1840 he owned but one violin—a Nicola Amati.
15By that time the preference in other European countries for the violins of Stainer, Klotz and other German makers had changed, and violinists and violin lovers were keen to acquire the treasures of Italy, and they then began to migrate rapidly to other countries.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.