Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 71
Scan 71
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 49. See the scan on archive.org.
1layers (sur couche).* The varnish, which is remarkable for its delicacy, is of a yellowish light brown colour, and of excellent quality. The extended dimensions, and the proportion of the arching relative to that of the thickness, impart to most of these instruments a superb, grave, and melancholy tone.
3Before Gasparo di Salo, there was nothing definitively settled as regards the form of the violin; but it is quite evident, from his productions, that henceforth the existing shape of this instrument became firmly established. Subsequently, the differences of detail among the instruments of various makers are so slight, that they are only obvious to a well-practised eye.
5A cotemporary of John Paul Magini, Anthony Mariani, of Pesaro, likewise manufactured violins from 1570 to about 1620; but his instruments, made at random, and without fixed principles, have no value, and are not even sought after as objects of curiosity.
7* In examining the transverse section of the trunk of a tree which has been felled for some time, two marked features will be observed; namely: 1st, the clearly defined circles which, gradually enlarging, surround the heart of the tree, and which represent the annual layers or growths of the wood; and, 2ndly, the cracks or fissures caused by the dessication of the timber, and which extend in straight lines from the centre towards the circumference. These cracks are termed, in French, mailles, and planks which are sawn in the direction of them—that is, from the heart to the bark—are said to be cut sur maille; while those which are sawn as nearly as possible on the annual layers above described, are said to be cut sur couche. In England, different terms are used by the sawyers in different counties to designate these modes of cutting the timber. On the quarter seems to be one of the most usual for that answering to the French sur maille; and for the other (sur couche) we have adopted the expression on the layers, in order to render the meaning perfectly intelligible to the reader, who, in addition, will invariably find the French terms given in a parenthesis.—Tr.
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