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Scan 80
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 66. See the scan on archive.org.
1and Giuseppe, entered the Church. Paolo became a merchant. The profession of the remaining son, who nearly attained majority, is not known; and of the girls, only Giulia was married, the other two dying spinsters. Until quite recently Stradivari had only one wife and three children assigned to him. These details are taken from a small brochure on the Cremonese makers by Paolo Lombardini. Everything considered to be in the least degree connected with this famous name has been, at various times, carefully noted; but it is only within the last few years that the major part of these particulars has been authenticated; and the chief merit of collecting them is to be ascribed to Lombardini.
3Readers cannot be too frequently cautioned to remember that violins by this and the other great masters are extremely rare. This term, when applied to fiddles, has a much more limited signification than it possesses when referring to other objects, such as coins, shells, fossils, &c. A general notion of the rarity implied may be formed when it is remembered that Otto, in a career of between forty and fifty years, during which time his fame as a repairer may be said to have extended throughout the whole of Germany and even beyond its limits, had under his hands only about thirty instruments of five Cremonese makers—viz., three members of the Amati family, Joseph del Jesu, and Stradivari, an average of six violins for each name. Another celebrated connoisseur states that for every hundred specimens claiming to come from the hand of Stradivari it would be safe to reject ninety-nine as spurious. Although since this opinion was expressed a good many examples of Stradivari have come to light, there is
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