Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 114
Scan 114
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 92. See the scan on archive.org.
1minutest care, have demonstrated that any modifications introduced into this model tend to impair the sonority of a good instrument.
3Thus, it appears that the beautiful experiments of Savart have proved, to a demonstration, the excellence of the principles which guided Stradivarius in the making of the fine instruments produced by him from 1700 to 1725. Nor did he swerve from them in his later works; but the great age to which he had attained gradually diminished his firmness of hand. The form is not essentially changed in his latest instruments, but the workmanship betrays timidity. His finest instruments known are: 1st. That which belongs to the Grand Duke of Tuscany; 2nd. M. Alard's; 3rd. Viotti's, now belonging to M. Brochant de Villiers; 4th. Artot's, which is in the possession of the Count de Cessol, at Nice; 5th. M. Boissier's, of Geneva; and, lastly, those of Messrs. Betts, Goding, Plowdens, and Fountain, of London.
5These principles, so rich in results, the master communicated to his best immediate pupils, at the head of whom stand Joseph Guarnerius, an original but capricious genius; next, Charles Bergonzi, the most exact imitator of his master, and of whose make there are some excellent instruments. Francis Stradivarius has likewise made some good violins, which, from 1725 to about 1740, bear his name; but we know others made by him in conjunction with his brother, Omobono, which bear this inscription: Sotto la disciplina d'A. Stradivarius, Cremona. Omobono Stradivarius was more particularly occupied with the repair and fitting-up of instruments, than with their manufacture. He died
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