Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 222
Scan 222
the history of the violin, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 200. See the scan on archive.org.
1stated that the workmanship of Di Salo's instruments is not highly finished, but the tone full of vigour; the S S holes straight, large, and well cut, and parallel, forming one distinctive mark of the school of Brescia, which was the cradle of the Italian school. He employed strong wood, and used a deep brown varnish; his instruments are scarce, and produce a good price. Dragonetti's instrument was by this maker, and after his death was returned to the convent from which it originally came. In "Luthomonographie" there is a copy of a ticket with the date 1652, which we conclude should be 1562. At the Conversazione of the Musical Society of London on the 29th January, 1862, at St. James's Hall, the celebrated performer, Ole Bull, exhibited a violin of this maker with the following description:—
3"The celebrated 'Treasury Violin' of Inspruck, by Gaspar di Salo, with Caryatides by Benvenuto Cellini, sculptured by special command of Cardinal Aldobrandini, and by him presented to the Museum of Inspruck, in the Tyrol. After the assault upon the said city by the French in 1809, the museum was plundered, and the violin carried to Vienna, where the Councillor Rhehazek placed this unique gem in his celebrated collection of ancient musical instruments, refusing to sell it at any price. He left it by will to Ole Bull, in 1842. Up to that period it had never been played upon; had no bar, only a bridge of boxwood, sculptured and painted, and a very short and inlaid finger-board."
5As the instrument was exhibited under glass no accurate opinion can be given of it; it is smaller than any other instrument which has been seen of this maker, and the varnish less brown in hue than usual, being of a dull yellow colour, and meagre. Only the upper vibrating plate or belly could be viewed, with the carved head,
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