Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 81
Scan 81
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 59. See the scan on archive.org.
1them, and on the other it leaves no traces of the operation of re-glueing. Besides, these edges are relieved and ornamented with a large purfling of three colours, presenting an outline of the instrument and, indeed, performing the office of a hem destined to preserve the fragility of the back and belly. Nothing like this existed in the viols which immediately preceded the violin.
3It would be a great mistake to suppose that the position and form of the \( f \)-holes, which, in the violin, alto, and bass, replace the openings of the older instruments, are arbitrary. The position of these \( f \)-holes, their form, the minutest details of their cutting, are such essential points, that no alteration whatever can be made in them without injuring the quality of the tone.
5The neck of the violin is no less entitled to praise than the other parts of the instrument, from the simplicity of its disposition and its graceful outline, so happily terminated by the elegance of the scroll. Lastly, the apparatus which serves to distend the strings (the putting into vibration of which reveals the qualities of the instrument) is the simplest and the best-conceived which it is possible to imagine.
7Maple and deal are the constituent elements of the violin; which woods present infinite varieties, by reason of the different countries which produce them, and the climates under which their growth is developed. The maple used by the old Italian makers came from Croatia, Dalmatia, and even from Turkey. It was sent to Venice, prepared for oars used for the galleys; and the Turks, it is said, always in rivalry and often at war with the
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