Scan 31
The violin & its story : or, the history & construction of the violin, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 17. See the scan on archive.org.
1certain Albinus invented a viol of four strings which he says were tuned:—
3but as to who and what this Albinus was, and where or when he lived, we are left altogether in the dark. It was only in the beginning of the sixteenth century that writers began to give us any reliable information about stringed instruments, and from that period onwards it is much easier to trace out their further development.
5It is perhaps not difficult to explain the indifference of mediæval writers to this topic, or their entire silence concerning it. From the earlier centuries of the Christian era until well on into the middle ages, the arts, and all kinds of erudition, were the sole property of the Church and of the cloistered clergy; and the best of the arts, music among the rest, were exclusively employed in the service of the Church; while even here, for the most part, voices only were used, to the exclusion of all instruments, except the organ. Instrumental music,—if one may apply the term to the beginnings of things—rested in those days in the hands of one, or at most two, classes of people, who in France were described as Troubadours, Romancers, Minstrels, and so on. They recited, sang, played, made jests, and travelled about the country in the company of rope-dancers, jugglers, and conjurers. Partly by their wandering lives, and partly by their connection with men whose arts were either noble in themselves, or else served a useful purpose, these "wandering lutists" commanded a vast amount of attention. The Church put them under its ban, and the society of the towns regarded them as outlaws and without any rights. Their children could learn no trade, because they were regarded as of unholy birth; and
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