Scan 30
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1had any knowledge of instruments played with a bow; and it is satisfactory to know that upon this point writers on the subject of the early history of the Violin seem agreed, though at variance upon other matters of equal importance. The statue of Orpheus holding a lyre in one hand and a bow in the other has been cited as a proof that the ancients were acquainted with the bow; but upon closer inquiry it will be found that this delineation is wholly insufficient evidence to prove the existence of bow instruments among the people of antiquity. The fact that the development in question is attributed to the restorer of the statue at once disposes of the connection between Orpheus and bow instruments.* The earliest form of bow instruments of which we have any knowledge is the Crwth (Crooth), belonging to Wales. This curious instrument is mentioned by Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, who lived in the sixth century. It is doubtful whether the Crwth of this period had a bow. It was, possibly, a modified form of the instrument used by the Egyptians, and likewise played with a plectrum. M. de Coussemaker in his "Essai sur les instruments de musique du moyen Age," gives the figure of a Crwth of the eleventh century, which has three strings and is played with a roughly-made bow. From the days of Venantius Fortunatus to the eleventh century is a considerable step, and yet there is no mention any-
3* Fétis, "History of Music."
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