Scan 104
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 62. See the scan on archive.org.
1Some time back there turned up a violin with a ticket worded as follows:—
3ANDREA GISALBERTI
4CREMONENSIS
5FECIT BOZZOLO 1717
7It was not his invariable custom to date his tickets.
8Bozzolo is situated some sixteen or seventeen miles east of Cremona, and this may have been his first resting stage during his wanderings after leaving his future famous pupil.
9It is quite within probability that more, if not many, of Gisalberti's works will come to light now that a hunt for them has commenced. During his Cremona period—of which it is to be hoped some violins will hereafter appear—and while he was at Parma, where his stay was sufficiently long to warrant the use of printed tickets, he must have made many instruments which were afterwards dispersed about the country, some of them possibly still surviving the ravages of time and the repairers.
10To return again to Joseph Guarnerius. We left him a young man of twenty-three years of age, issuing violins with his own ticket with the announcement that he was the pupil of Andreas Gisalberti. It is a matter of much regret that of the next few years no specimen of his work is at hand for reference. There is an unexplained gap which may yet be found to be not for ever bare of specimens, and those which are destined to come to light will be interesting in the extreme.
11It has been said in Italy, that Joseph Guarnerius, like his teacher, wandered for some time from place to place, and if this should prove to be true, it would account for the blank after the year 1706. Be this as it may, we can only deal at present with what facts are within our reach, and therefore passing over from 1706 to 1714, we have under our consideration another specimen from the hand of Joseph Guarnerius, whose ticket of the time is thus:—
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.