Scan 42
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1that maker. The instruments of Andreas Amati are carefully finished. He used high archings, and the F holes are in the style of Gaspard di Salo, but the boldness of the design is wanting, and they are consequently almost too broad. The varnish is of good quality, and of a deep golden colour; the backs are cut slab-fashion, generally of maple, but also often of pear-tree wood. The instruments are of different sizes, but generally of a small pattern, they have little power, but possess a sweet quality of tone.
3Among the celebrated instruments by this maker were twenty-four violins, twelve large and twelve small, six tenors, and eight basses, which were made for the chapel of King Charles IX., at Versailles. On the backs were the arms of France, and beneath the device "Pietate et justitiâ." These instruments vanished during the Revolution, in October, 1790. (x)
512. AMATI, Antonius et Hieronymus. Sons of Andreas. Cremona, 1570-1635. Antonius was born in 1550, and died in 1638. Hieronymus was probably born in 1551, and he died in 1635. (y)
7(x) There was a violoncello bearing the arms of France and this motto in the collection of Sir William Curtis. Mr. Heron-Allen, in "Violin-making, as it was and is," describes a violin said to be of these instruments, the property of Geo. Somes, Esq. Mr. Louis Blumenberg, of New York, a violoncellist of merit, who was in London in 1891, brought over with him a good violoncello which was reported to be one of this collection; it had recently been put in order by Silvestre, of Paris. An excellent violoncello, considered to be one of this set, was in the possession of the late Canon Bridges, and now is used by his son. It is considered that there were several other makers bearing the name of Amati whose exact connection with Andreas Amati has not come down to us. There was a Nicolas Amati at Cremona, according to some authorities, the brother of Andreas; of him little is known, he is said to have worked until the year 1586. There was also a Giuseppe Amati at Bologna at the beginning of the seventeenth century, according to Fétis.
9(y) For the fullest information and particulars of the genealogy of the Amati family (as well as that of Guarnieri), see the Appendix to "Liutai antichi e moderni," by Giovanni de Piccolellis, (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1885 and 1886). This information is quoted to some extent by Vidal in his "La Lutherie," (Quantin, 1889).
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