Scan 28
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1Two pen and ink drawings, which stand as ornaments at the beginning of Notker's book, represent King David sitting on his throne, and playing a seven-stringed lyre with a plectrum. In each of the four corners of the page is a figure, one playing on the violin (Rebek), a second on the cither, a third on the dulcimer, and a fourth on the harp. From the scrupulous care with which these fine drawings are made, it is evident that the artist did not invent or draw upon his imagination, but had examples before his eyes.
3From the eleventh century onwards pictures of bowed instruments are more plentiful.
5In the Church of St. Michael at Pavia, the oldest portion of which dates from the sixth century, there is a representation in relief, of the eleventh century, of a player with a bowed instrument.
7On the capital of St. George's Church, Bocherville, also of the eleventh century, is sculptured a row of eleven musical figures. There we see a three-stringed viol, with an inlet on each side, and four halfmoon-shaped sound-holes, the player holding the instrument between his knees; and also a four-stringed elliptical "arm-fiddle," which the eighth musician, a crowned figure seated, plays in the usual way.
9Prior to the French Revolution, there was to be seen at Notre Dame, Paris, at the right hand entrance under the dome, a crowned, standing figure, which Montfaucon believed was intended for King Chilperic. The figure held an instrument fitted with four strings, elegantly cut, and the instrument much narrowed round the neck. The table was flat and continued right up to the neck. This statue belonged to the eleventh century, and was transferred from the old church to the new.
11In the interior of the Abbey of St. Germain des Près, Paris, probably of the twelfth century, is a bearded man carved in stone, who holds in his left hand a large five-stringed viol, which he is playing with a bow held in his right hand. The body of the instrument is long and elliptical, without inlets, and with two long sound-holes,
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