Scan 25
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1PART II.
3THE DEVELOPMENT AND PERFECTION OF VIOLIN-MAKING.—THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ART.
5The masters who formed the Cremona school came from Brescia; of these the Amatis, the founder of which family was Andreas Amati, took the lead. In his first independent works are to be found reminiscences of Gaspard da Salo, although it has never been proved that he was a pupil at any time of that maker. It is to be observed with most of the Italian violin-makers that they work at first in the footsteps of their master, but as soon as they gain consciousness of their own power they form their own paths to right and left, they devise new outlines and archings, and as each one prefers what he himself creates, so the various schools originate through the varying changes and differences of opinion and diversions of each master.
7The style of the period has in the same way to be considered. If at the present time beauty and power conjointly are sought, and Stradivarius and Joseph Guarnerius, who possess these properties in the highest degree, are prized the most, there are also periods when preference was given to a low and soft sounding tone, and the prize was awarded to Amati and to Stainer.
9At the highest period of success of the old Brescian and Cremona makers, the violin was valued only according to its tone-producing qualities; but as the fashion began to value more and more the developing beauties of its form, the violin began to have its connoisseurs as well as its players.
11Down to 1800 no master stood as high in favour as Stainer; and in Germany, France, and England most makers
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