Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 68
Scan 68
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 54. See the scan on archive.org.
1stain upon this artist's name, I shall be very glad. Ber- gonzi says that Joseph del Jesu died in 1745, after having been several years in prison. All writers repeat these words, and account for the inferiority of the later instruments in accepting the whole story as probably true. Now, Paganini's violin is said to be one of the finest known. He himself never found any to surpass it, and it remained his favourite instrument to the day of his death. Fetis says, "Parmi les meilleurs violons de ce grand maître on peut placer en première ligne celui dont Paganini jouait habituellement dans ses concerts, et qu'il a légué à la ville de Gênes." Well, the date of that fiddle is 1743! Joseph del Jesu must have risen like a phoenix from his own ashes to have fabricated such a masterpiece less than two years before his death, and it is to be hoped that further researches will entirely sweep away all traces of an ugly story—and the prison fiddles along with it—reinstating this great artist in that position which the many splendid works of his brain and hand entitle him to occupy. The date of this fine instrument is the only useful thing which has been drawn from it since the death of Paganini, and some wealthy amateur might endeavour to persuade the Fathers of the city of Genoa to accept in exchange for the liberation of this fiddle a foundation, or Paganini scholarship of some kind, much more likely to be useful to them than the possession of a dumb masterpiece; for, had it circulated, like other great instruments, among musical coteries, and its date become generally known, the story of the "prison fiddles" could never have acquired any degree of credence. They might have been accounted for in some other way, but
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