Scan 13
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1EDITOR'S PREFACE.
3This little work, published in 1877, appears to me to contain matter of much interest to lovers of bowed instruments, and to merit a translation into the English language. In this opinion I am fortified by the criticisms of several writers, and especially by the latest, Mr. E. Heron-Allen, in his "De Fidiculis Bibliographia," Part I., section iv., p. 100. Of this book he writes as follows: "This is a far more important and earnest effort of the author of the preceding work. It contains essays on the origin and history of the violin, and the six leading schools of violin-making; on Luigi Tarisio, and on labels; on varnish; and the rest of the book is taken up by an alphabetical catalogue of the Italian violin-makers and the characteristics of their work. This latter section, being the recorded observations of a really practical maker and connoisseur, renders the work of the greatest value to all violin-makers, practical or theoretical." This opinion appears to me to be carefully considered, and I cannot do better than quote it without further comment.
5To the text which I have rendered into English as exactly as possible, preferring precision to elegance, I have appended a series of notes, which will be, I hope, of some interest to the reader. I have also added an Appendix, containing a list of minor makers, Italian by birth or by education, and also of makers of viols, lutes, cithers, and other instruments, nearly three hundred in number, with a view of providing a catalogue which may be, as nearly as possible, complete. Such a comprehensive list is not out of place in a work professing to deal with the violin, when it is remembered that the great Antonio Stradivari did not disdain to make the cetera, a fine speci-
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