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Scan 748
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1922
10 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1violin-maker's wife, Francesca Feraboschi. She was buried with conspicuous honours in a tomb situated in the choir of the church of St. Domenico, and fifteen months after her death Stradivari consoled himself, becoming united in August 1699 to Signora Antonia Maria Zambelli, daughter of Antonia Zambelli, of the parish of S. Donato. This second marriage was blessed with five children: one daughter—named after the first wife—Francesca Maria, born Sept. 19, 1700 (died Feb. 11, 1720); Giovanni Battista Giuseppe, born Nov. 6, 1701 (died July 8, 1702); Giovanni Battista Martino, born Nov. 11, 1703 (died Nov. 1, 1727); Giuseppe, who became a priest, born Oct. 27, 1704 (died Dec. 2, 1781); Paolo Bartolomeo, born Jan. 26, 1708, who was a cloth-merchant (died Oct. 14, 1776). The last named, together with Stradivari's first child, Giulia Maria (by his first wife), were apparently the only members of his family who married.
3Immersed in the absorbing interest of his work, it may be safely said that the years passed swiftly over Stradivari's head, so that, notwithstanding the loss of several of his children, the thought of purchasing a family vault did not occur to him until eight years before his own death. It was in 1729 that he is recorded to have purchased, from the heirs of Francesco Villani, the burial-place and tombstone belonging to that noble family. The exact locality of this vault has been entirely lost since the total destruction of the church of S. Domenico and its chapel—named after the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary—which contained the Villani, afterwards the Stradivari tomb. No funds for the restoration of this handsome church were available, and it gradually fell into such a state of decay that the city authorities had the building demolished in 1869, converting the site into the existing public garden. Here a commemorative inscription on one of the decorative vases in the grounds perpetuates the memory of the church of S. Domenico, but the fact that it was the last resting-place of the illustrious violin-maker is not alluded to. The Villani tombstone, however, from which the coat-of-arms and family inscriptions were so imperfectly effaced that they are still visible under Stradivari's name, is now preserved in the Municipal Museum, and the Parish Register of S. Matteo records that Stradivari's second wife was interred in the Villani vault on March 4, 1737. She was the first member of the family to be buried there, and nine months later she was followed by her husband, who was laid to rest on Dec. 19, 1737. The following members of his family were also interred in the same vault: Omobono Stradivari, June 9, 1742; Francesco Stradivari, May 13, 1743; Paolo Bartolomeo Stradivari, Oct. 15, 1776; Giuseppe Antonio Stradivari, Dec. 3, 1781; Catarina Stradivari (spinster), June 18, 1784.
5Little or nothing is known concerning the disposition of Stradivari's property after his death. The census returns reveal that his family continued to reside in the Piazza Roma house until 1746. Possibly his sons and daughters divided their father's possessions amicably among themselves, and we may presume that the privilege of using his workshop and tools fell to the share of Francesco and Omobono, who survived their father for five and six years respectively. After the departure of Stradivari's son Paolo Bartolomeo, with his wife Elena Templari and their four children, in 1746, the new tenant, Bergonzi, presumably became the owner of Stradivari's tools and violin-making appurtenances; but during the thirty-nine years or so which elapsed between Stradivari's death and the sale of his designs, moulds, etc., by his descendants to Count Cozio di Salabue, many of these interesting relics necessarily became scattered abroad and passed into different hands. With the exception of his callipers, the great Cremona maker's tools were not included in the Count's collection, which now belongs to the Marchese Dalla Valle in Turin. There are sixteen moulds for violins, and three for violas, in this collection, besides various drawings and designs for the minutest details of his art, which are of great interest. M. Vuillaume, it is said, also preserved some of Stradivari's moulds, and these were presented by him to the Musée of the Paris Conservatoire, whilst the French luthier, M. Chanot-Chardon, owns a set of small planes said to have belonged to Stradivari.
7As no genuine portrait of the great Cremona maker exists, we still have to rely on the verbal description of Stradivari handed down to us by Polledro from his master Pugnani, for an idea of his personal appearance. According to M. Fétis (Biog. des Mus.), on whose authority we have the account, Polledro, formerly first violin at the court of Turin (died 1822), records that his master, Pugnani, knew Stradivari during the latter part of his life, and delighted in talking about him. He described him as tall and thin. As a rule his head was covered with a white woollen cap in the winter, and a white cotton cap in the summer; over his clothes he wore an apron of white leather, and, as he rarely ceased from work, his costume varied seldom. M. Fétis also recounts that Stradivari's untiring industry and his frugal habits brought him to an old age of such easy circumstances that his affluence became a standard of comparison to the people of Cremona, who adopted the phrase Ricco come Stradivari.
9In the opinion of Messrs. Hill, Stradivari was undoubtedly an apprentice in Nicolo Amati's workshop, but they unhesitatingly repudiate the idea that Stradivari assisted Amati in the construction of his later instruments, and this on the grounds that there is no indication of any such help to be found in the latter's work.
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