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Scan 28
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
6 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1violas, &c., have almost all been altered and taken to pieces, or used up for the repair of other instruments.
3One other name may be mentioned here whose chief claim to distinction is that he is credited, on somewhat doubtful authority, with being the teacher of the first of the Amatis—viz., Giovanni Marc del Busseto, whose date is given 1540-1580, Cremona. It is the first name hailing from this subsequently celebrated town. Some say he was trained in Brescia, although existing specimens of his instruments do not support this opinion, being constructed on quite different principles. Others assert that he was simply a contemporary of Amati, was probably this or probably that, and so on. The whole story is involved in too much uncertainty and confusion to call for further comment.
5To the makers already mentioned must here be added a name which has hitherto escaped the notice of all biographers down to the present day, and if I am not mistaken, it is now, and in these pages, that it first appears in the company of the early fiddle makers. Giovanni Cellini, father of the illustrious Benvenuto Cellini, was born in Florence somewhere about the middle of the fifteenth century. He was originally an architect, but later in life devoted himself to the manufacture of musical instruments of various kinds. His distinguished son tells us that his father had the reputation of making, among other instruments, violas of rare beauty and perfection, the finest that had ever been seen. This is no mean praise or doubtful testimony to their excellence as works of art, although uttered by a son speaking of the productions of his father; for I do not suppose that, through all his tri-
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