Scan 135
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 87. See the scan on archive.org.
1men, rather than of one who seemed to be swayed about by conflicting influences, or by his own capriciousness. On close scrutiny and comparison between different specimens there will be seen some signs remaining of the method of working, and even of the marking or tracing down on to the wood of the guiding lines for gouging; there is very little however, in fact not so much as may be sometimes seen on the work of those masters of elegance and finish, the Amati family. The gouging is always of an apparently hasty kind, with little or none of the polishing up afterwards of the edges of each turn, such as is so often seen with less vigorous workmanship. In this department of work Gisalberti seems to have had no fixed intention of keeping to a well set type; a good boldness and effectiveness seem to have been the prevailing ideas; all small niggling work must have been an abhorrence to him, and he would have none of it.
3It was apparently this spirit that animated him while turning out the probably great number of quaintly formed violins, some violas—of basses he probably made but few—which in hands more accustomed to very delicate knife work would have been made more attractive to the eye of the average admirer of the Italian liutaro's art.
5Like many others—his contemporaries perhaps among them; it may have been more like a general rule than would at first be suspected—he seems to have decided upon a certain type for the time being, keeping fairly within certain boundaries of what he found, either by observation or direct request, was a necessity in the pursuit of success in gaining favour among likely patrons at Bozzolo. This supposition is helped by the fact of his return to his own particular fancy in the treatment of his work after leaving this place.
7He appears to have been at Bozzolo about one year, and then removed to Rimini. It has been stated that he worked at other places than Cremona, Parma and Bozzolo before—as it would appear by date—finally settling at Rimini.
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