Books › The fiddle fancier's guide; a manual of information regarding violins, violas, basses and bows of classical and modern times, together with biographical notices and portraits of the most famous performers on these instruments, 1892 › scan 34
Scan 34
The fiddle fancier's guide; a manual of information regarding violins, violas, basses and bows of classical and modern times, together with biographical notices and portraits of the most famous performers on these instruments, 1892
4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1being interchangeable. "Lebab" signifies the heart, and it appears to have had also the meaning of "hollow"—if we may follow Gesenius and Principal Lee. It has, further, the meaning of "hollow-hearted" an epithet which admirably describes the primitive form of the rebab.
3The earliest known illustration of a viol—the instrument which seems to me to be clearly the only direct descendant of the cruth—is contained in a work entitled "The First Book of Songs," and printed at Verona in 1491. This illustration will be found reproduced in No. 5 of "The Violin Monthly Magazine." The instrument is a five-stringed viol having, in addition, two deep-toned strings under or outside of the fingerboard and apparently for a purpose similar to that which the two detached strings of the Welsh Cruth serve, but which, on the latter instrument, are placed on the opposite side of the fingerboard. A most interesting feature of this very early viol is found in the circumstance that although it has no middle bouts as we now know them it possesses an approximation to what we are familiar with as the Brescian violin corner. I am quite sure that we cannot in every case depend on the entire accuracy of these early drawings; for we find in them many little details which are visibly absurd, but in their main features, and in their outline I think they are quite trustworthy, and in this, the very earliest known illustration of such an instrument, there is a clear and unmistakable approach to violin form in the rounded end, the corners, the position of the sound holes in relation to the corners, and the position of the bridge in relation to the sound
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.