Scan 22
Catalog of rare old violins, violas, violoncellos, bows of rare makes, 1921
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ANTONIUS AND HIERONIMUS AMATI, CREMONA, 1595
3NUMBER 4913. This violin reaches very far back—almost to the very beginning of violin history. Fifty-five years after the first violin of which there is any record appeared in Brescia in 1540, this instrument, made for Henry IV, King of France and Navarre, was completed by the master builders of Cremona, of their time, Antonius and Hieronimus Amati, in 1595. Nearly fifty years were to elapse before the birth of Antonius Stradivarius. Nicola Amati had not yet been born, and one hundred and thirty-five years were to pass before Joseph Guarnerius would give to the world his great treasures.
5The violin was beginning to attain popularity in Italy, and reports had reached Paris of the remarkable work of the brothers Amati in Cremona. This was thirteen years before a violin part was to appear for the first time in an operatic score. Violins were used to accompany the voice in song and occupied a very unique position in church service.
7So it was that a set of violins was ordered by the King of France, for his chapel. They remained in the possession of the court, with the one known exception of this particular violin, until the French Revolution, when they were destroyed or lost in the attack on Versailles.
9Among the courtiers of the court of Henry IV was a music loving cavalier, Francois de Bassompierre, Marshall of France, and later Ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth, at London. His memoirs show him to have been a passionate lover of music and to have had in his suite his own orchestra, composed of the best musicians of the time. When not engaged in one of his many military campaigns he devoted his time to the cultivation of music and other arts.
11This violin passed into his hands—probably as a gift of the king to his music loving favorite—and it remained in the possession of his family for two hundred years, according to the Latin inscription by J. B. Cartier, chef d'orchestre of Louis XVIII, written in ink in the back of the violin, on the occasion of taking it to Gand, the young pupil of Nicholas Lupot, for repairs. (See Plates X and XI.) Probably no other violin in existence has a more interesting history.
13It is in a fine state of preservation, and has a very wonderful tone, remarkable alike for volume and quality. It is an instrument of very full size, being slightly over fourteen inches in length of body, and usual width of upper and lower bouts.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.