Books › The Story of the Violin, 1914 › scan 102
Scan 102
The Story of the Violin, 1914
10 lines. Read by computer on 16 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Two Gasparos
3laboriously inlaid, adorned with oil paintings¹ of madonnas and saints and coats of arms in colours and gold, the sides bearing verses; the purfling is often double and terminating in arabesques. All are labelled—one dated 1510; another, now at Aix-la-Chapelle, 1511; a third, now at Bologna, 1515; a fourth, 1517; and a fifth one, belonging to the Prince Nicolaus Yous-soupoft² in St. Petersburg, has a head (Duiffoprugcar's) carved instead of a scroll, and on the label, "Gaspar Duiffoprugcar Buononiensis, anno 1515."
5Stronger proof for Rochefort's claims than these six instruments could hardly have been found, and although certain experts shook their heads and would not believe in the joyous truth that at last the right man, the real inventor of the violin, had been found, Duiffoprugcar's fame rose. Various other writers, like Niederheitmann,³ presently discovered other facts about him. His name had been really Tieffenbrucker, and evidently being difficult for Italian tongues to pronounce, the master had changed it into Duiffoprugcar, and adopted the name for his labels. Others being half-suspicious of the very early date of his birth and yet not in the position to refute the evidence, sought solace in hunting for his birthplace, and found it not in the Italian Tyrol but in Bavaria, thus making him a genuine German.
7¹ One was formerly supposed to be by Leonardo da Vinci.
8² Author of "Observations on the Origin of the Violin," Journal Encyclop.
9³ Niederheitmann: Cremona.
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