Scan 224
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 58. See the scan on archive.org.
1sider that Ganassi was doubtless writing of the Viol with which he was familiar, and was not concerned with an altogether new form of instrument, which had possibly then been recently introduced at Brescia. I am therefore inclined to believe that Gasparo da Salò worked a few years earlier than has been stated. The difference between the Viols described by Ganassi and the four-stringed instruments associated with Gasparo da Salò, I cannot but regard as casting light upon the development of the last form of the Italian Viol. The Viol described by Ganassi, and that of Gasparo, give us two distinct Italian manufactures. I am not aware of the existence of an Italian work which treats of four-stringed Viols. The German work of Martin Agricola, however, entitled, "Musica Instrumentalis," published in 1529, mentions them. Four instruments are there described, all of unsightly shape, called respectively, Decantus, Altus, Tenor, and Bassus, the first-named instrument with four strings. It therefore appears that four-stringed Viols were used in Germany early in the sixteenth century, and that they were re-modelled by the Brescian makers in conformity with the taste of the Italians.
3To Gasparo da Salò belongs the credit of having laid the foundation of the Italian style of Violin-making. In his works may be traced the gradual development of the system upon which his followers built their reputation, viz., a well-defined model,
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