Scan 85
Cremona: an account of the Italian violin-makers and their instruments, 1894
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 63. See the scan on archive.org.
1died 1748, nearly seventy years old, and was buried in the Church of Saint Domenico." (b)
3Francesco and Omobono carried on their father's business in the same house after his death, but Paolo became a dealer in cloth.
5The violinist Polledro, of Turin, who died a few years back at a great age, relates that his master had been well acquainted personally with Stradivarius. He describes him as a tall thin man, who generally wore a white woollen or cotton cap on his head. When at his work—and he was always at work—he wore an apron of white leather. As Stradivarius sold his violins for not less than four louis d'or, he acquired a handsome fortune; and "rich as Stradivari" was the expression used by the inhabitants of Cremona when they wished to describe a rich man.
7His house was in the Piazza Roma, No. 1239, close to the Place S. Domenico, in the midst of which stood the Church of S. Domenico. It is still in good condition. We are indebted to the researches of Signor Sacchi at Cremona for details concerning the end of the great master. It is known that Stradivari purchased, in 1729, a family burial-place in the Church of S. Domenico, but the registers of the Cathedral prove that he was buried in the grave of Francesco Vitani, in the Chapel of the Rosary of S. Mattheo. The omission of the name of the church in which the
9(b) The researches of Lombardini have shown that Antonio Stradivari married, on the 4th July, 1667, Francesca Ferraboschi, the widow of Jean-Jacques Capra, and by her had four sons—Francesco, born 6th February, 1670, died 12th February, in the same year; Francesco, born 1st February, 1671, died 11th May, 1743; Alessandro, born 25th May, 1677, died 26th January, 1732, (a priest), and Omobono, born 14th November, 1679, died 8th July, 1742; and two daughters, Giulia, born 23rd December, 1667, who married one Farina, a notary, and died 7th August, 1707, and Cattarina, born 18th February, 1674, died, unmarried, 3rd August, 1748.
11For his second wife Stradivari married, on the 24th August, 1699, Antonia Zambelli, by whom he had five children; four sons—Giovanni Battista Giuseppe, born 6th November, 1701, died 1702; Giovanni Battista Martino, born 11th November, 1703, died 1st November, 1727; Giuseppe, born 27th October, 1704, died 29th November, 1781, and Paolo, born 26th January, 1708, died 19th October, 1776; and a daughter, Francesca, who was born 19th September, 1700, and died, unmarried, 12th February, 1720.
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