Scan 59
The violin & its story : or, the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 43. See the scan on archive.org.
1penetrating but veiled and melancholy tone; in those of Nicholas, the most famous of all the Amati, the tone is pure, clear, and lovely, but of little intensity. To combine the power, the vigour, the grace and charm, with the purity and brilliance of the entire vibrating body of tone,—this was a problem yet to be solved; and this was accomplished in the most wonderful manner by—
3ANTONIO STRADIVARIO, who was far and away the greatest of all violin makers. He came of a very distinguished family, whose records exist in the annals of Cremona as far back as the year 1127. The actual date of his birth is not known, but the year in which he was born has, by what may almost be called an accident, been made known to us. Among the instruments in the collection of Count Cozio di Salabue, was a violin by Stradivarius,* in which the renowned maker has given his age as ninety-two, and the year in which he made the fiddle as 1736; so that we know at any rate that Stradivarius was born in 1644.
5A pupil of Nicholas Amati, he made a few violins from the year 1667, when he was twenty-three years of age, in which the form of his master was accurately copied, and to which he affixed the labels of Nicholas. He first began to put his own name in his instruments in 1670, though he produced but little till 1690; and his biographer, Vuillaume, is of opinion that during this period of twenty years Stradivarius did more in the way of experimenting and studious contemplation than in making instruments with any idea of selling them. The instruments made in this stretch of twenty years varied but slightly from those of Nicholas Amati. The year 1690 marks the point of departure or transition era, in which the works of the great artist began to exhibit a style all his own. He then began to impart greater fulness to his model, to bring his arching and the proportions of all the parts to
7* We shall continue from this point to spell the name in this way, which is the one most familiar to lovers of the violin.—Translator.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.