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Scan 41
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
1continual change of masters to whom it was at various periods subjected, it eventually emerged in a time of comparative peace, when it fell under the dominion of Spain, in whose hands it was when the greatest of those masters of the art of violin making, of whom this chapter treats, lived and worked in it. It was then a fine, large, and populous place, between three and four miles in circumference, blessed with a most salubrious climate, having a fine academy erected by the Emperor Sigismund, which enjoyed the same privileges and immunities as those of Paris and Bologna. Its houses were large, well built, and beautiful to look upon—almost like palaces. It had several fine public gardens, and could boast of having the highest tower in the world. Its great church was most magnificent, had large revenues, and contained the reliques of more than one hundred and sixty saints—an important source of income in those days. It was well watered by the Oglio Canal, the River Adda in the west, and the Po in the south. The territory around it, and, indeed, all the district, was remarkably fertile, producing in abundance corn, wine, fruits, milk, honey, flax, wool, and all other things necessary to existence, so that, on the whole, Cremona was at that time a most desirable place in which to dwell. An old author, writing of Cremona at this time, says, "Two things will render this town for ever famous in history." The first was the abduction of a marshal of France, who was taken at the commencement of the eighteenth century by the Germans; and the second, the bravery of the French garrison, who, in spite of the loss of their captain and the great number of Germans already in possession of the town, made a sally and chased them out of it. Alas! who now remembers
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