Scan 35
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
9 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 21. See the scan on archive.org.
1and in earlier times they were always selected from the nobility.
3These two epochs of instrumental music—viz., that of the wandering minstrels, and that later time in which the growing importance of the great towns served to develop the incorporation of bodies or guilds of musicians—afford very little information that serves our present purpose. The real progress of the art of playing upon stringed instruments cannot be traced with much certainty until the sixteenth century, but from that time forward more reliable historical information is at our disposal. In early days, and more particularly in the beginning of the history of stringed instruments, it is quite possible that the men who used these instruments made them for themselves; but from the early part of the sixteenth century, the engravings of instruments to be found in old works prove that their construction called for well and carefully trained artificers. A few extracts from some of these old works, which are so scarce that they are not likely to be in the hands of the general reader, will be apposite to our present purpose.
5The oldest book on the subject with which we are dealing is the "Musika getutscht" (German music) of Sebastian Virdung, printed at Basle in 1511, the entire work occupying only fifty-six quarto pages, which contain fairly accurate pictures of the instruments then in vogue. Our investigations limit us, of course, to bowed instruments; and amongst these pictures we find the "great fiddle," and the "little fiddle," reproductions of which will be found in figures 9 and 10. one of two readings
6The oldest book on the subject with which we are dealing is the "Musika getutsch" (German music) of Sebastian Virdung, printed at Basle in 1511, the entire work occupying only fifty-six quarto pages, which contain fairly accurate pictures of the instruments then in vogue. Our investigations limit us, of course, to bowed instruments; and amongst these pictures we find the "great fiddle," and the "little fiddle," reproductions of which will be found in figures 9 and 10. one of two readings
8This "great fiddle," as will be seen, is of a somewhat grotesque shape. The middle "bouts" are very long and deeply cut, so that the upper and lower bends hang over to an excessive degree. The "f-holes" are represented by the two half-moon shaped holes cut in the upper part of the instrument, and there is a round "sound-hole" of altogether disproportionate size. The instrument has nine strings, and the way in which they are fastened, as well as the frets on the finger-board, remind us of the lute.
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