Books › Chats on violins, 1905 › scan 77
Scan 77
Chats on violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1How interesting it is to observe an expert spelling out the name of an old fiddle by the aid of this "touch of the vanished hand." How eagerly he seeks it and finds it with the help of that alphabet which lies concealed in the colour, shape, height and curves of an old violin.
3Long before it was definitely known that Maggini was old da Salo's pupil, experts had ascertained the fact by finding the influence of da Salo's work in the young Maggini's productions, and, more wonderful than this, they had discovered that some of da Salo's violins, though labelled with his name, were really Maggini's work, simply through the incontestable evidence of the "touch of the vanished hand."
5Of old Gasparo da Salo little is known. Time, the effacer, has smoothed away all knowledge of the real man, and, as neither Gasparo or Maggini dated their violins, it is only surmised that he was born at a little town called Salo on the borders of Lake Garda, Lombardy, about 1510, and that he died at a ripe old age about 1609.
7Whether he was industrious or idle, generous or ungenerous, happy or unhappy, loved or unloved, wise, stupid, married, single,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.