Scan 782
GROVE'S DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN FIVE VOLUMES, 1908
14 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 720. See the scan on archive.org.
1profession of their illustrious ancestor Antonio Stradivari.
3Synopsis of the most Noticeable Violins, etc., made by Antonio Stradivari.—According to Messrs. Hills' careful calculations Stradivari made 1116 instruments between the years 1666 and 1737; of these, 540 violins, twelve violas, and fifty violoncellos are actually known to them to-day, whilst they have traces (unconfirmed) of over one hundred more. The earliest dated instruments seen by them are of the years 1666, 1667, and 1669. Count Cozio di Salabue states, however, that Stradivari was working and inserting his own labels in 1659. The following are the names of some of Stradivari's most noticeable violins: The 'Hellier,' 1679; the 'Sellière,' made between 1666 and 1680; the 'Tuscan,' 1690 (see MOSEL); the 'Betts,' 1704; the 'Ernst,' 1709 (presented to Lady Hallé by Earl Dudley and others); 'La Pucelle,' 1709; the 'Viotti,' 1709; the 'Vieux-temps,' 1710; the 'Parke,' 1711; the 'Boissier,' 1713; the 'Dolphin,' 1714 (so named from its iridescent varnish); the 'Gillot,' 1715; the 'Alard,' 1715; the 'Cessol,' 1716; the 'Messie,' 1716 (preserved in Count Cozio di Salabue's collection for fifty years without being played on; hidden by Luigi Tarisio for thirty years in an isolated farm near the village of Fontenato, Italy; purchased by Vuillaume when Tarisio died in 1854; preserved by him in a glass case in his shop; sold to Mr. E. Crawford, an enthusiastic musical amateur, for £2000, and now the property of Messrs. William Hill). The 'Sasserno,' 1717; the 'Maurin,' 1718; the 'Lauterbach,' 1719; the 'Blunt,' 1721; the 'Sarasate,' 1724; the 'Rode,' 1722; the 'Deurbroucq,' 1727; the 'Kiesewetter,' 1731; the 'Habeneck,' 1736; the 'Muntz,' 1736 (both of these show the shaky hand of the veteran master).
5Violas: The 'Tuscan,' 1690, preserved in the Municipal Institute, Florence—it bears Stradivari's monogram stamped on the mortice of the neck, the original finger-board, tail-piece, tail-nut, and bridge; two violas, 1696, belonging to the quintet of inlaid instruments for some years owned by King Philip IV. of Spain; the 'Archinto,' 1696 (named after Count Archinto who owned a Quartet of Strads); the 'Macdonald,' 1701; Paganini's viola, 1731, which inspired Berlioz to write his symphony 'Harold in Italy.'
7Violoncellos: The 'Archinto,' 1689; the 'Tuscan,' 1690; the 'Aylesford,' 1696; the 'Cristiani,' 1700; the 'Servais,' 1701; the 'Gore-Booth,' 1710; the 'Duport,' 1711; the 'Adam,' 1713; the 'Batta,' 1714; the 'Piatti,' 1720; the 'Baudiot' and 'Gallay,' 1725, comprise some of the finest instruments made by Stradivari (see also QUARTETS OF INSTRUMENTS).
9Bibliography.—Alfonso Mandelli, Nuove Indagini su Antonio Stradivari; W., A. F., & A. Hill, Antonio Stradivari; Vincenzo Lancetti, Biografica Cremonese; Carl Schulze, Stradivari's Geheimniss; Horace Petherick, Antonio Stradivari; Federico Sacchi, Gli instrumenti di Stradivari (Estratto della Gazzetta Musicale), Milano, anno 1892; Edouard Roche, Stradivarius; Juliet von Lepel Guitz (née Buchanan-Austin), Ein Stradivarius; Anonymous (Enrico Stradivari), Cenni sulla celebre scuola Cremonese, Cremona, 1872; F. J. Fétis, Antonio Stradivari Luthier célèbre, Paris, 1856 (English translation by John Bishop, London, 1864); H. R. Haweis, My Musical Life, pp. 314-328, Stradivarius of Cremona, his House; C. Reade, Cremona Violins (vide Readiana); Anon., A Short Account of a Violin by Stradivari dated 1690; W. E. Hill & Sons, The Tuscan Strad; E. J. Payne, The Violins of Stradivari, pp. 202-4; Musical Standard, vol. xxxiv., London, 1888; Giovanni di Piccolellis, Liutai Antichi e Moderni; Jules Gallay, Les Luthiers Italiens aux XVII et XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1869 (only 500 copies printed); Jules Gallay, Les Instruments des Ecoles Italiennes; Richard G. White, Antonius Stradivarius (The Atlantic Monthly), Boston, vol. xlv. p. 253, 1880; The Stradivarius case at the Violin Loan Exhibition (Musical Star), Edinburgh (secular), No. 167, July 1885; J. M. Fleming, The Stradivarius Violin, the Emperor, London, 1891; Joseph Pearce (jun.), Violins and Violin-makers; A. Vidal, Les Instruments à Archet; G. Hart, The Violin; The Salabue Strad (the Messie), W. E. Hill & Sons, London, 1891; Louis Perrard, Le violon, son Histoire; Von Lutgendorff, Die Geigen- und Lautenmacher; George Eliot, 'Stradivari' (poem); Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn; Robert Fissore, Les Maîtres Luthiers.
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13STRADIVARI, FRANCESCO and OMBOONO, sons of the above by his first wife, née Francesca Feraboschi. Francesco was born at Cremona on Feb. 1, 1671; died May 11, 1743; and Omobono was also born at Cremona on Nov. 14, 1679; died June 8, 1742. Both were interred in the Villani vault. They were the only members of Stradivari's family who embraced their father's profession, and although their work is not without merit, their brilliant and long-lived father entirely eclipsed them. During the latter years of Stradivari's life there is little doubt that they assisted him, probably in conjunction with Carlo Bergonzi, in constructing his violins. This would account for those specimens of the great master's work that frequently give rise to controversy. But for the hand of the vandal these 'doubtful' instruments would bear the label 'sotto la disciplina d'Antonio Stradivari,' by which inscription he distinguished the instruments made in co-operation with his sons. These tickets have, however, in almost every case, been removed, and fresh
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