Scan 241
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
8 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 75. See the scan on archive.org.
1ITALIAN MAKERS.
3This purchase, made about fourteen years after Stradivari began to manufacture on his own account, well marks the progress he made. I have, however, further proof of his fame and prosperity at this period in the valuable extracts from the manuscript of Desiderio Arisi, at Cremona.
5The knowledge Arisi had of Stradivari is shown by the following remarks written by him in the year 1720. He says, "In Cremona is also living my intimate friend Antonio Stradivari, an excellent maker of all kinds of musical instruments."* It will not be out of place to make special mention of his merits. His fame is unequalled as a maker of instruments of the finest qualities, and he has made many of extraordinary beauty, which are richly ornamented with small figures, flowers, fruits, arabesques, and graceful interlaying of fanciful ornaments, all in perfect drawing, which he sometimes paints in black or inlays with ebony and ivory, all of which is executed with the greatest skill, rendering them worthy of the exalted personages to whom they are intended to be presented. I have thought proper, therefore, to mention some works of this great master, in testimony of the high esteem and universal admiration which he enjoys." These pre-fatory remarks of Arisi are followed by several im-
7* Mention is made by Lancetti that in the year 1820, the Marquis Carlo dal Negro, of Genoa, possessed a Harp bearing the name of Stradivari. Mandolines and other stringed instruments have been seen with his name attached.
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