Scan 181
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of "Stradiuarius," to the bewilderment of the passer by, whose unmusical soul fails to be impressed by it. To crown our seeming eccentricities (in the eyes of our Italian friends), I may mention that the magic name has found its way into circles where little interest is taken in Stradiuarius himself. Very recently the following appeared in the profane pages of a newspaper: "Waterloo Purse.—E. Mr. Goodlake's Gilderoy beat Earl of Stair's Stradivarius, and won the Purse;" the result showing that Stradiuarius was evidently out of place in such company.
3In the absence of direct information concerning the life of Stradiuarius we must turn to his instruments for such evidence as we require; and these, happily, give us a greater insight into his career than would readily be imagined. I am not aware that there has ever appeared a Violin of Stradiuarius in which it is stated that he was a pupil of Nicholas Amati, or that this assumption has been maintained on any other grounds than the indisputable evidence furnished by the early instruments of this great maker. Never has affinity in the art of Violin manufacture been more marked than that between Stradiuarius and Nicholas Amati during the early life of the former. I have, in another place, remarked upon the almost invariable similarity occurring between the works of master and pupil, and have used this canon in refutation of the doctrine that Joseph Guarnerius del Jesù was ever a pupil of Antonius Stradiuarius. We will proceed to
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