Scan 137
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 87. See the scan on archive.org.
1scroll, in which Guarnerius is as distinct from Stradiuarius as it is possible to be.
3It may be asked then, if not from Stradiuarius, from whom did Guarnerius receive instruction? To disagree with what is popularly accepted, and yet to withhold one's own counter-theory may, perhaps, tend to weaken one's case. There can be but one method to be pursued if, in the absence of any historical data, we set about the investigation of the question, viz., that of analogy. Starting upon this ground, the first step to be taken is to endeavour to discover the maker whose work and style bear some degree of similarity to those of Joseph del Jesù. If we carefully review the works of the Cremonese makers, it will be found that Guarnerius, son of Andrea, and cousin of Guarnerius del Jesù, is the only maker above all others in whose productions we can find the strong similarity needed. Analogy, therefore, would point to him as the instructor of his cousin. Guarnerius, son of Andrea, was del Jesù's senior by many years, and it is far more reasonable to conclude that it was in his workshop that del Jesù was first instructed, than that he was the pupil of a maker whose work he never copied, and whom he never in any way resembled. Enough has been said on this question to enable the reader to judge for himself, and this may the more readily be conceded when it is also admitted that, after all, it is of little importance to determine where the early training of this kingly maker was passed, as he so
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