Scan 319
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
7 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 257. See the scan on archive.org.
1Julian Tiburtino and Louis Lasagrino, who were in high favour as musicians at Florence about 1530, are also mentioned as Violin players, but were, probably, performers on the small Viol.
3Bombet, in his letters on Haydn, says:—
4"Symphonies, therefore, were only an air played by the Violin instead of sung by an actor. The learned will tell you that the Greeks, and afterwards the Romans, had no other instrumental music; at least, it is certain that none was known in Europe before the symphonies of Lully, but that which is necessary for dancing; and this imperfect music, in which one part only executed the melody, was performed in Italy with but a small number of instruments. Paul Veronese has preserved to us the form of those which were in use in his time in the famous 'Cena di San Giorgio,' which is at once the largest and most pleasing picture in the Museum of Paris. In the foreground, in the vacant space of the semicircle formed by the table, at which the guests of the marriage of Cana are seated, Titian is playing on the Double-Bass, Paul Veronese and Tintoret on the Violoncelle; a man with a cross on his breast is playing on the Violin, Bassano is blowing the Flute, and a Turkish slave the Sackbut."* I have not been able to ascertain whether the instruments above named have been accurately described, but if the author is correct, we have reliable evidence that
6* This instrument, mentioned in the Bible, gave rise to the Trombone of the Italians.
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