Scan 183
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1909
8 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 135. See the scan on archive.org.
1instructed them. To suppose that Guarneri del Gesù formed the single exception to the likeness between the work of master and pupil, is scarcely sufficient to satisfy the inquiry.
3There are three essential points of difference between Guarneri and Stradivari. The first is the outline of the work, which, as the mere tyro must at once observe, is totally different in their respective instruments. The second is the sound-hole, in which, again, the two do not approach one another; that of Guarneri is long, and a modified form of that of Gasparo da Salò. The third is the scroll, in which Guarneri is as distinct from Stradivari as it is possible to be.
5It may be asked, then, if not from Stradivari, from whom did Guarneri receive instruction? To disagree with what is popularly accepted, and yet to withhold one's own counter-theory, may perhaps tend to weaken one's case. There can be but one method to be pursued if, in the absence of any historical data, we set about the investigation of the question, viz., that of analogy. Starting upon this ground, the first step to be taken is to endeavour to discover the maker whose work and style bear some degree of similarity to those of Giuseppe del Gesù. If we carefully review the works of
71 The evidence—if indeed it is to be characterised as such—upon which it has been recently asserted that del Gesù was a pupil of Andreas Gisalberti is so trivial and altogether unconvincing that it seems unsuitable for discussion or analysis in a serious work of reference.—EDITORS.
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