Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 52
Scan 52
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 32. See the scan on archive.org.
1II
3THE LEADER OF THE ROYAL VIOLINS
5In the summer of 1646, when the Duc de Guise was returning from Florence to Paris, he brought back with him an Italian boy, just thirteen years of age, called Battista, but who in after life became better known as Giovanni Battista Lulli, the friend (for a time) of Molière and Louis XIV., and the founder of French opera. The lad's merry dark eyes, long flowing hair, and open countenance, together with his peculiar soft Italian accent, and, above all, his tasteful playing upon the violin, even at that early age, attracted the attention of many persons. It is said that he was engaged as a page to Mdlle. de Montpensier (niece of Louis XIV.), but that lady getting tired of him, he was given a subordinate place in the kitchen, where he soon proved a very clever cook for certain dishes then in vogue.
7After some two and a half years of drudgery in the royal kitchens, enlivened occasionally by a little music, by the performance of some sprightly Italian melody, or by some wild pranks played upon the pompous chef de cuisine, who little dreamed that
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