Scan 73
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 37. See the scan on archive.org.
1enthusiastic collector, that there were at Pesaro about ten of the name working nearly, if not quite, at the same time. Another instance is that of the son of Nicolas Amati, whose name until recently was not to be met with in books or lists of violin makers, yet this maker, who lived a long life, and must have been a fellow patriarch in Cremona with Antonio Stradivari, made many surprisingly beautiful instruments. He is now known as Hieronymus filius Nicolas Amati, and occupies an important position in the estimation of those who have been fortunate in possessing some of his work. The actual relationship of the father, Giovanni Battista Guarneri, with Andrea Guarneri has some little bearing on the subject of the tuition of Giuseppe the Great. Supposing G. B. Guarneri to have been a maker, the most usual or natural course would have been for him to have trained his son in his own atelier, and sent him forth well impressed with his own style, but we have not heard or seen anything of this. On the other hand, if G. B. Guarneri was not a maker, or if we may assume for argument that he was even an actual relative, then possibilities must be admitted that there may not have been much social intercourse between Giovanni Battista and the other Guarneris, but on the contrary, even averseness to it.
3Without going to this extreme, the possibility of the comparative strangership between Giuseppe, our subject, and the others of the same name working within hail, is at once seen.
5It has so often occurred when a youth has been intended by his parents for some particular calling quite to their liking, that the ruling spirit or latent talent has broken through all restraint, and genius has had its way, with results that historical biography frequently records. If such occurred in the instance of the great Giuseppe Guarneri, there is very little, if any, probability that we shall ever have details.
7The fact alone is before us, and in print for the first time, that Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri was apprenticed to, or taught all the necessaries of his craft by, a liutaro
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