Scan 49
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 3. See the scan on archive.org.
1Violist named Jean Rousseau. The author, bent upon going to the root of his subject, begins with the Creation, and speaks of Adam as a Violist. Perhaps Rousseau based his belief in the existence of Fiddling at this early period of the world's history on the words "and his brother's name was Jubal; from him descended the Flute players and Fiddlers," as rendered by Luther.
3The parts Orpheus and Apollo have been made to play in infantile Fiddle history have necessarily been dependent upon the license and the imagination of the sculptor and the medallist. Inferences of antiquity, however, have been drawn from such representations. Tracings of a bow among the sculpture of the ancients have been sought for in vain: no piece is known upon which a bow is distinguishable. A century since, an important discovery was thought to have been made by musical antiquarians in the Grand Duke's Tribuna at Florence, wherein was a small figure of Apollo playing on a kind of Violin with something of the nature of a bow. Enquiry, however, made it clear that the figure belonged to modern art. Orpheus has been represented holding a Violin in one hand and a bow in the other; enquiry again showed that the Violin and the bow were added by the restorer of the statue.
5The views held by musical historians regarding the origin of the Violin may be described by the terms, Asiatic, and Scandinavian. The Eastern
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.