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Scan 214
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 200. See the scan on archive.org.
1which had, in some cases, been in use and well guided for perhaps a hundred years. When Corelli published his first works in 1683, the "Gaspars," the Magginis, the first Amatis and Rugers, and many of their contemporaries, were all in their graves. In that year Jacob Stainer was ushered out of the world, and Joseph del Jesu into it. The great Nicolas Amati was laid low in the year following, and Stradivari—who had been signing his own instruments for thirteen years—was, indeed, fast approaching the perfect period of his career, so that one may say that the dawn of violin making in England corresponded with its zenith in Italy, and that our native makers had to start their work, so to speak, in the blinding light of a noon-day sun, which perhaps staggered rather than guided them.
3In the annals of British string-instrument making, the very earliest name which has yet been found on record hails from Scotland—viz., Richard Hume, who, about the year 1530, was a maker of lutes and viols in Edinburgh. In the Scottish Treasurer's Accounts having reference to the reign of James IV. of that kingdom, there is an entry, under date 1535, "Item to the Kingis Grace to Richard Hume, Inglismanne, quhilk suld mak violis to the Kingis Grace, to by stuffe for the samin, XX. lib." This Richard Hume is mentioned in Dauney's "Ancient Scottish Melodies," where it is stated that he was the great viol maker in Edinburgh. That he was a maker of even violins is not improbable, for, at that very time, the Duke of Albany of that day—a Frenchman by birth, manners, and education, and unacquainted with the laws and customs, or even the language of the country—was Regent of Scotland during the infancy
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