Books › Antonio Stradivari, 1900 › scan 90
Scan 90
Antonio Stradivari, 1900
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1the identical qualities of those of their teacher. But what are the facts left for our consideration in connection with caliper measurement? the pupils admittedly of his teaching, among whom we may mention Lorenzo Guadagnini, his son Joannes Battista, Alexandri Gagliano, one or two of his sons and Carlo Bergonzi, as the best known, each adopted their own, or shall we say, left no more evidence for us of having a set rule for thicknesses than their master. The nearest approach to the asserted system of Stradivari, that of a gentle declination of substance in the wood down to the edge, was made by Lorenzo Guadagnini in his extra sized violins; but then the tone, wonderfully fine, is not Stradivari, but Guadagnini. Carlo Bergonzi's system, if we may for a moment call it, was quite unlike Stradivari, and yet connoisseurs have frequently credited him with having got "the same beautiful quality of tone." From these few references it will be sufficiently plain that the grand secret of tone quality must not be sought for with the aid of calipers, so we will dismiss this part of our subject and proceed to other considerations.
3Besides those who have pinned their faith to the thicknesses, there are those who take up with the "air mass" theory. I am afraid the arguments in favour of this last will not bear even so much knocking about as those just considered.
5We have in the first place to take into account the fact of the larger modern bar taking up more room than the old obsolete one of, not only Stradivari, but all the other masters of his time and before. The upper and lower end blocks have been enlarged in many instances to obtain a better hold on the upper and lower table. These alterations have been each of necessity, not of ignorance or mere whim, and moreover have proved efficacious for the end in view. The restorers, or regulators who have performed these operations must—according to the "air mass" theory—have been acting quite "in the teeth" of it and Stradivari's regulation, further there is not one fiddle in a hundred—perhaps not
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.