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

Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 221

Scan 221

the history of the violin, 1864

6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 199. See the scan on archive.org.

1with cap and frill was carved on the scroll. It belonged to Mons. Merts, first violin solo of the Grand Theatre at Brussels. Mons. Raoul had a bass-viol of this maker, distinguished for its beauty and tone, which Fetis states to be then in the possession of Mons. Vuillaume, and that the back had a representation of Paris in the fifteenth century; it was probably therefore the same as the instrument of Mons. Roquefort before mentioned, notwithstanding the difference of date stated in the picture of Paris. There is a portrait of him in medallion, quarto size, dated 1562. He is represented with a long beard and surrounded with instruments, having a pair of compasses in one hand and the neck of an instrument in the other.
3In "Luthomonographie," it is stated, but we know not on what authority, that Testator (il Vecchio), a maker at Milan, in the early part of this century, appears to have been the first who diminished the size of the viol, and gave the name of violino to the new-fashioned instrument. His instruments were like those of Gaspar di Salo, but the model rather more raised, and are now very rarely met with.
5The earliest violins of any considerable repute, except of course the early ones of the Amatis, are those by Gaspar di Salo, who worked at Brescia from about 1560 to 1610, or a little later, if we could rely on Dr. Forster, who states he had one with this ticket, "Gaspar di Salo, Brescia, 1613." He describes it as rather long, and high built, with a beautiful varnish, and perhaps the prettiest sides ever seen, but it had a new head and neck; the tone of the first and second strings was lively, bright, and piercing, a dry golden sound, as Dr. Forster calls it; the third string sweetly soft and musical, and the fourth round and very fine. Other writers have

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