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Scan 190
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
12 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 152. See the scan on archive.org.
11776), a cloth-merchant. 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.
3Tomb and Relics.—It was in 1729 that Stradivari 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 (1869) 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. A commemorative inscription on one of the decorative vases in the grounds (now a public garden) 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 Mar. 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:
5Omobono Stradivari, June 9, 1742; Francesco Stradivari, May 13, 1743; Paola Bartolomeo Stradivari, Oct. 15, 1776; Giuseppe Antonio Stradivari, Dec. 3, 1781; Catarini Stradivari (spinster), June 18, 1784.
7After the departure from the house in the Piazza San Domenico 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 violin-maker's tools were not included in the Count's collection, which subsequently passed 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. 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, Chanot-Chardon, owned a set of small planes said to have belonged to Stradivari.
9As no genuine portrait of Stradivari exists, we still have to rely on the verbal description of him handed down to us by Polledro from his master Pugnani, for an idea of his personal appearance. According to Fétis (Biog. des Mus.), on whose authority we have the account, Polledro (d. 1882), formerly first violin at the court of Turin, 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. 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.
11Method and Workmanship.—In 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. The explanation of this is possibly to be found in the fact that Stradivari's superior gifts placed him in a high position of trust, freed him from many of the duties exacted from his comrades, and gave him the privilege of making his own instruments and using his own labels. The question must still be somewhat a matter of surmise, but the above conclusion is certainly strengthened by the excellent violins which issued from Stradivari's hands whilst apparently he still worked in the studio of the great Amati. Again, the termination of Stradivari's apprenticeship can only be approximately stated to have taken place a couple of years before he purchased his house in the Piazza Roma in 1680. Already in 1666—and possibly as early as 1660—Stradivari was making violins in which he affixed his own labels. These early violins are particularly noticeable for their poor material, thick yellow varnish, solid build, and their proportions, which follow those of Amati's smaller pattern, i.e. about 13 7/8 long; 7 1/8 width of lower bouts; 6 3/8 width of upper bouts; 1 3/8 lower ribs; 1 1/8 upper ribs. With one or two exceptions, notably the ornamented violin known as the 'Hellier' Strad (1679), which tends towards the grand Amati in measurement, and is remarkably heavy in style of work, Stradivari adhered to the small model until 1684, after which date he definitely turned his attention to larger-built instruments. There is little doubt that by this time he had gained some prestige as a maker, and this, combined with the loss of his master's living influence, gave freedom to and further awakened his inventive faculties. Until 1684 he merely
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