Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 212
Scan 212
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 198. See the scan on archive.org.
1remonstrances, for we find Pepys describing him as "that stupendous violin Sig. Nicholao, whom I never heard mortal man exceed on that instrument. He had a stroke so sweete, and made it speak like the voice of a man, and, when he pleased, like a concert of severall instruments. He did wonders upon a note, and was an excellent composer." North describes his manner as singular, but says that he performed wonderfully. His son, who was also a great violinist, and who did much to forward the interests of his instrument, ultimately settled in Shrewsbury, where he taught French and the violin to the celebrated historian of music, Dr. Burney. With the arrival of the elder Matteis, who is said to have been the inventor of the half shift, the furore for the fiddle—which, as we have seen, was originally introduced to this country from France—reached an intensity to which it had not previously attained, and Italian violins came into as high repute as Italian music, the latter having made here great advances in public favour through the importation of Corelli's works, some of whose compositions were first published at Rome in 1683. The fashion of travelling in Italy had its influence on the development of this taste, and North informs us that most of the young nobility and gentry who had been there "affected to learne of Corelli, and brought home with them such favour for the Italian music as hath given it possession of our Parnassus. And the best utensill of Apollo, the violin, is so universally courted and sought after to be had of the best sort, that some say England hath dispeopled Itally of viollins."
3This run upon Italian instruments does not appear
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.