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Scan 113
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
6 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 99. See the scan on archive.org.
1German Makers.
3writer above referred to. M. Vidal says, with regard to the pochette or kit, that it is not very interesting to learn who had the first idea of reducing the ordinary violin to this size, but that it probably originated in the convenience of dancing masters about the end of the sixteenth century: "Il est très probable que cela eut lieu vers la fin du XVIe siècle lorsque la danse devint une mode générale dans toutes les cours de l'Europe." Well, Thomaso or Maso Fineguerra, to whom is generally ascribed the honour of having invented the art of engraving from metal plates, was a distinguished goldsmith in Florence, and the date of his accidental discovery is usually set down at about 1460.
5Among other works he produced a set of fifty prints, which are very rare. No. 16 of this collection represents Thalia kneeling on her right knee, her head leaning forward as listening, while she plays on a kind of kit or small violin having two strings. No. 26 is a representation of Music, a female figure sitting cross-legged on a swan, and playing on a pipe. A kit, or small violin, a harp, a hautboy, a mandolin, and an organ, are on the foreground, and the print looks like an old Greek design of the later painters. The date of these prints has not been exactly fixed, but I think the probability is that they were taken shortly after Fineguerra made his important discovery, which, at the time, created considerable interest, and was immediately adopted by many distinguished men, such as Baccio Baldini, another goldsmith, who worked from the designs of Sandro Botticelli. Pollajuolo and Andrea Mantegna also employed the method. The former of these, having acquainted himself with the process, engraved his
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