Scan 43
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
16 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1player's two arms. The "sound-holes" are like those of the later gamba, but are turned the other way about.
3The instruments described by Silvestro Ganassi del Fontego (in his "Regola Rubertina, che insegna suonare de Viola d'arco tastada," Venice, 1543) is very much like the fiddle of Judenkünig, but very different from that found in Agricola. It was tuned thus:—
5Discant: D, G, c, e, a, d¹.
6Alt. or Tenor: G, C, F, A, d, g,
7Bass: D, G, C, E, A, d.
9There were seven frets on the finger-board, by means of which a chromatic scale of two and a half octaves could be played.
11There is very little more that is noteworthy to be found in the known authors of the sixteenth century, beyond the fact that in a work by Giov. M. Lanfranco, kapellmeister at the cathedral of Brescia—"Scintille di Musica"—which was printed in 1533, the name "violino" appears for the first time. Another author was Ludovico Zacconi, who was a singer in the Austrian Royal Chapel, and afterwards in the cathedral at Munich; Zacconi wrote a book called "Prattica di Musica," published at Venice in 1592, wherein he stated that the compass of the violin was from G to b¹,* which proves that at that time what are now known as the second and third positions were altogether unknown and unthought of; and the b above the first ledger line over the stave was the highest note used on the violin long after the year when Zacconi's book was published.
13The violin attains its perfected form in the "Syntagma Musicum" of Michael Praetorius, the second volume of which appeared in 1619.
15* That is, from to —Translator.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.