Scan 434
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1909
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 360. See the scan on archive.org.
1such good fortune prompted him to make fresh overtures of purchase cannot be wondered at. We learn from the correspondence of Paolo Stradivari that the Count had caused two letters to be sent by the firm of Anselmi di Briata to Paolo inquiring if he was willing to part with the tools and patterns used by his father Antonio, and that Paolo replied on May 4, 1776: "I have already told you that I have no objection to sell all those patterns, measures, and tools which I happen to have in my possession, provided that they do not remain in Cremona, and you will recollect that I have shown you all the tools I have, and also the box containing the patterns. . . . I place all at your disposal, and as it is simply a friendly matter" (Paolo Stradivari appears to have had large dealings in cloth and other goods with the firm of Anselmi di Briata, of Casale, a small city on the Pò), "I will give you everything for twenty-eight giliati."1 It does not appear that Paolo's correspondents were moved in their answer by any feelings of sentimentality or of friendship: on the contrary, the tone as a cloth warehouse. He therefore seems to have only decided to dispose of his father's tools when he was in a feeble state of health, he having died, as already noticed, before the purchase was settled, aged 68.
31 A giliati was a Tuscan gold coin bearing the arms of Florence, the value of which was 9s. 6½d. Its present purchasing power would probably be three times as much, and therefore the sum asked by Paolo Stradivari would be equal to £38 12s. 10½d.
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