Scan 203
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 143. See the scan on archive.org.
1both distinctive and effective. The Violin-makers of Italy, having exhausted the calendar of its Saints emblematic of Harmony, left it to the Venetian to honour the name of himself and the city which was the seat of the greatest Violin manufacture the world had witnessed. In Venice he soon attained great popularity, and made the splendid specimens of his art with which we are familiar. The instructions which he had received at Cremona enabled him to surpass all in Venice. He gained great knowledge of the qualities of material, and of the thicknesses to be observed; and, moreover, he carried with him the superior form of the Cremonese school, and the glorious varnish. Mr. Reade names him "the mighty Venetian," an appellation not a whit too high-sounding, though it may appear so to those not acquainted with his finest works. The truth is, that Montagnana is less known than any of the great makers. For years his works have been roaming about bearing the magic labels of "Guarnerius filius Andreæ," "Carlo Bergonzi," and sometimes of "Pietro Guarneri," although there is barely a particle of resemblance between the works of our author and the makers named, whose labels have been used as floats.
3Montagnana was in every way original, but the fraud that has foisted his works upon makers who were better known has prevented his name from being associated with many of his choicest instruments, and deprived him of the place which he would
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