Scan 57
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
7 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 33. See the scan on archive.org.
1and research may perhaps enable us to determine this with more certainty than at present. In the meantime we may say that the scant credit accorded in various books to Hieronymus, the son of Nicolò, is most misleading: at times he made instruments worthy of the best traditions of his family.
3We have not sufficient data to enable us positively to affirm in what year Stradivari definitely started working on his own account; but the fact that he purchased a house in the Piazza Roma in 1680 tends to fix that year as the probable date, though we think it not unlikely that the separation from his veteran master was made gradually, and commenced a year or two previously. The late Mr. E. J. Payne, in a very interesting article contributed to Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians," says that Amati appears to have retired in 1679, and that the workshop was broken up the following year. Such cannot have been the case, as we have both repeatedly seen and possessed instruments bearing Nicolò's original labels dated between 1680 and 1684. It is therefore apparent that the love of his art held him to his calling until the end; and, judging by the extreme rareness of Stradivari's works at that time, we believe that he must have continued to give a helping hand to the last. Again, Hart,* on the authority of Lancetti, states that all the tools, models, and patterns of Amati passed, at his death, into the possession of Stradivari instead of remaining in the hands of his son, Hieronymus. This may possibly have been the case, but we are much inclined to doubt it; for, as far as we can ascertain, they have never belonged to the Dalla Valle Collection.† Lancetti appears to have formed his conclusions from the
5* Hart, Articles "Stradivari," p. 173, and "Amati," p. 87.
6† "The Contents of the Dalla Valle Collection," Chapter VIII., p. 214.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.