Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › Old violins and violin lore. Famous makers of Cremona and Brescia, and of England, France, and Germany (with biographical dictionary); famous players; and chapters on varnish, strings and bows, 1893 › scan 58

Scan 58

Old violins and violin lore. Famous makers of Cremona and Brescia, and of England, France, and Germany (with biographical dictionary); famous players; and chapters on varnish, strings and bows, 1893

8 lines. Read by computer on 14 September 2026. Printed page 48. See the scan on archive.org.

1quite out of date. There could have been little in those small, almost three-quarter size, brown varnished, and sweet but feeble-sounding violins to attract the aspiring grandson; but there were qualities in the somewhat larger models of the famous brothers, Geronimo and Antonio, which set his hand and head agoing, when as a boy he fell to copying and carving backs and bellies, and twisting ribs and throwing scrolls, in his father's little workshop at Cremona, opposite the west front of the Saint Dominic Church.
3Nicolo the Great doubtless followed and imitated his father Geronimo, but wishing to miss nothing, and perhaps labouring under a sense of obligation or merely out of genuine affection, his labels embody an immortal acknowledgment of indebtedness to both masters. They run thus:—"Nicolaus Amatus Cremonem Hieronymi Fil, ac Antonij Nepos fecit, 1677." (The italics are mine.)
5Nicolo the Great's smaller patterns made in his father's workshop are not unfrequently to be met with, and can be picked up for between £80 and £100, or even less.
7But as we watch his dates, the touch of Nicolo very soon becomes distinctive. On the death of his father and uncle he found himself in possession of a workshop which inherited a great name, but which was destined to transmit to future generations the greatest violin names in the world. Among the pupils of Nicolo in 1653 sat the brothers Guarneri, Andrea Guarnerius having witnessed the marriage of his master

The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.