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Scan 114
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 100. See the scan on archive.org.
1Battle of Nude Figures about 1480—a date which is fixed by Lanzi, who says that Pollajuolo was called to Rome in 1484, in consequence of the renown which he obtained by this engraving: "Al tempo de costoro (Baldini and Boticelli) e con più fama d'ingegno, si esercitò nella incisione anche Antonio Pollajuolo. Pochissime stampe di lui ci restano, e fra esse, la celebre battaglia de'nudi, ultimo e vicinissimo grado al fiero stile di Michelangiolo. L'epoca di questi lavori dee collocarsi intorno al 1480, perciocchè, per essi venuto in grido, circa il 1484 fu chiamato a Roma a fare il sepolcro a Sisto IV., morto in quell'anno."
3Mr. Fagan, of the British Museum, quotes Mr. Ottley's opinion that the above work was engraved between 1460 and 1470, and as Pollajuolo and others derived their knowledge of this method from the discovery of Fineguerra, the probability that the above fifty prints of the inventor were taken somewhere about 1460 becomes almost a certainty; and a curious field of conjecture is opened to the view of the violin antiquary by the presence of these kits, for, if they were not children of Fineguerra's imagination, but copies of an existing form of pochette or pocket fiddle, so far from the question as to who made them being, as Vidal says, of little interest, it becomes one of the greatest importance in connection with this subject. The prints are acknowledged to be genuine antiques by the most distinguished authorities in these matters. Finding representation in them of these small violins at so early a date, and none—at least hitherto—of the modern fiddle until a very much later period, one is strongly tempted to give his fancy rein, and to ask if
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