Scan 116
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 106. See the scan on archive.org.
1michol, and schalisim—which are represented with fiddle-bows, and he depicts these instruments with carved human faces, or "cittern-heads," by way of ornamentation. F. W. Marpurg ("Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten und neuen Musik," p. 32, Berlin, 1759) likewise mentions these three instruments as Hebrew fiddles; however, he further improves upon Printz's fanciful designs by adopting in his illustrations the proper indentations of the sides of our violin. Furthermore, he maintains that the barbitos of the ancient Greeks was such a fiddle, and that it was of Persian origin. Sir John Hawkins ("History of Music," Vol. iii., Book i., chap. 1), after having quoted the opinion of Athanasius Kircher respecting the employment of the bow with those Hebrew instruments, expresses a doubt whether the illustrations may be accepted as authentic. On the other hand, he has no scruple about the authenticity of a Roman representation of a supposed Apollo with a fiddle, which he gives in Vol. i., Book ii., chap. 9, with the statement: "Upon this relic of antiquity, a drawing whereof was found in the collection of the late Mr. N. Haym, it is observable that the lyre is of a form nearly resembling the violin, as having a body, and also a neck, which is held in the left hand; the instrument in the right hand, no doubt, answers to the modern bow, with this difference, that its use was percussion and not friction, which latter is a modern and noble improvement. The position of the instrument deserves to be remarked, as it corresponds exactly with the viola-di-braccio."
3Dr. Burney ("History of Music," vol. i., p. 493) remarks: "The little figure of Apollo playing on a kind of violin, with something like a bow, in the Grand Duke's Tribuna, at Florence, which Mr. Addison and others supposed to be antique, has been proved to be modern by the Abbé Winkelmann and by Mr. Mings. So that, as this was the only piece of sculpture reputed ancient in which anything like a bow could be found, nothing more remains to be discussed relative to that point." With respect to Roman instruments with a neck, Burney says: "There is, in an antique painting in the collection of William Lock, Esq., which consists of a
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