Books › The Violin and its Music, 1881 › scan 168
Scan 168
The Violin and its Music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 148. See the scan on archive.org.
1the Violin originated in France. A slight enquiry will, in my opinion, be sufficient to show that this belief has nothing to support it. In a work of Lanfranco's, printed at Brescia in 1533, the name Violino is seen; whether it refers to a four-stringed instrument tuned in fifths cannot be affirmed. Leaving this an open question we will pass to the makers. Here we have Gaspard di Salo at work during the last half of the sixteenth century; in Brescia also was Matteo Bente, Budiani, and Maggini, all working before its close. Turning to Cremona we find Andrea Amati making Rebecs and Viols prior to 1550, and that he made Violins shortly after that date is evidenced by those made for the court of Charles IX., whose reign dated from 1560 to 1574. Returning again to printed matter relative to the instrument, we see the compass of it given in a work of Zacconi's, printed at Venice in 1596, namely, from open G to B in the first position.
3What have we to put beside this evidence of use and manufacture in Italy on the part of France? In manufacture, nothing whatever. As regards use of the instrument there is no lack of evidence. We find it at the courts of Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV.; at the latter the king's band of twenty-four Violins being used for dancing. At a fête at Bayonne in 1565, dances were introduced with appropriate instruments, among them the Violin; and again in 1579 at the marriage of the Duke de Joyeuse Violins were introduced to play the dances which
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