Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 57
Scan 57
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
10 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 43. See the scan on archive.org.
1of these Albanis are said to be servile copies of Nicolas Amati without possessing any of his good qualities. Matteo Albani is, indeed, the only one of the name whose instruments ever acquired any sort of sterling reputation, and Otto refers to them as being so like those of Joseph Guarnerius and Nicolas Amati as to render it extremely difficult to indicate their differences.
3Nella Raphael, or, as he is also called, Della Raphael, is allocated to Brescia about the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. His instruments are described by an old author as being somewhat voluminous in sound, with carved heads and the sides filled with inscriptions of various kinds. They are of no importance as musical instruments.
5Domenico Pasta and Gaetano Pasta are two makers who worked in Brescia from about 1705 to 1730. Their work was in imitation of the Amatis, but nothing more is known of them.
7Dominicelli is another maker of the Amati school. All that is known of him is that he worked in Ferrara from 1695 to 1715.
9Another Ferrarese maker of this school was Allesandro Mezadri, dated 1690 to 1720. A ticket of his runs, "Allesandro Mezadri Fece in Ferrara, anno 1713." His instruments, however, although set down by Fetis as after the Amati type, are reported by those who have seen them to be copies of Stradivari. There was a Francesco Mezadri in Milan, 1700 to 1720, a small viola by him being cited as bearing a ticket, "Franciscus Mezadri Milano, anno 1712." It is described as of very pretty workmanship, having pale roseate yellow varnish, and a back made of poplar.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.