Books › Old violins and violin lore, 1900 › scan 64
Scan 64
Old violins and violin lore, 1900
10 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1VIOLINS AT CREMONA
3Antonio Stradivari or Stradiuarius was born in 1644, and died, in his ninety-third year, in 1737. We get the date of his death from the register, and the date of his birth is fixed by a violin label (1736) in his own handwriting, in which he states that he was ninety-three years old when he made the instrument.
5Stradiuarius married at the age of twenty-three a woman of twenty-seven, who had been a widow for three years, whose maiden name was Ferraboschi, and he adopted her one little girl. By her he had six children, some of whom died before him. His second wife, whom he married several years later, bore him five children, two of whom died before him—so that in all Stradivari had eleven children. None of them seemed to have inherited their father's genius; only Omobono and Francesco Stradivari made even decent fiddles, and so far maintained the great name as to succeed at first in selling their wares at their father's prices. The buyers probably hoped that at least the wood might have been selected by Stradivari père, and much of it probably was; and if there was the chance of getting a spare rib or back or belly with a touch of the master upon it, it was surely worth a little speculation.
7Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, as stated before, were young garzoni or apprentices together in the workshop of the great Nicolo Amati—sat on the same work bench, used the same tools, and doubtless discussed the same problems.
9In and out of that shop ran, no doubt, the boy Giuseppe Guarneri to see his uncle Andrea. He must
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