Scan 223
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 57. See the scan on archive.org.
1born in the town of Salò, on the lake of Garda, Province of Brescia, and of Gasparo being his Christian name. The period when Gasparo da Salò made his instruments is given between 1550 and 1610. I have no remembrance of having seen a dated label. Such may exist, and these dates may not, like many in connexion with the old makers, be arbitrary ones. The best and most certain guide, however, to a knowledge of the time when he worked is, I am convinced, to be found in the character and style of his instruments. Gasparo da Salò was essentially a maker of Viols. He made Accordos, Violonos, and Tenor Viols, and but few Violins. The general character of all his instruments is essentially primitive, significant of their being anterior to those of Andrea Amati, of whom we have evidence that he made Violins for Charles IX. in 1572.
3We have no data of much value to guide us as to the condition of Viol manufacture in Italy beyond that contained in the work of Ganassi on the Art of Playing the Viol, published at Venice, 1543. The instruments referred to by Ganassi are of an earlier type than those of Gasparo da Salò; they are six-stringed Viols, and have not the four drawn-out corners, whilst Gasparo made Tenor Viols with four strings, with projecting corners. Although this evidence tends to fix the date of Gasparo's manufacture as commencing about 1550, we have to con-
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