Scan 59
Famous Violinists and Fine Violins: Historical Notes, Anecdotes, and …, 1903
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1due to the fact that they were both Italians, living in a foreign land, where they were duly recognised as two of the finest musicians of that day.
3At Florence, where Cherubini was born in 1760, and where he received his first lessons in solfeggio and the harpsichord from his worthy father, Bartolomeo Cherubini, maestro al clavicembalo at the Pergola Theatre, the hard-working parent of twelve children, of whom Luigi was the tenth, the family resided in a modest cottage in the Via Fiesolana. When about eight or nine years of age, this tenth child Luigi found in the house what one of his biographers terms a "wretched" old violin, and "amused himself by scraping on it."
5Please, dear reader, take note of the date—say 1768 or 1769—and the country—Tuscany, not very far from the celebrated violin-making city of Cremona!
7A "wretched violin"! Who can say, if the said instrument were now in the hands of a London dealer, it would not be considered cheap at £500 or £600?
9In Northern Italy, at that time, it is doubtful whether such a thing as a "wretched old violin" could have existed.
11Only just fancy the thousands of pounds sterling that have been spent in buying up the Italian violins of that period!
13It was probably an Amati, or a Stradivari, with a
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.