Scan 52
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 36. See the scan on archive.org.
1Towards the middle of the sixteenth century we find Venturi Linarolli, who worked in Venice from about 1520; Peregrino Zanetta, of Brescia, and Morglato Morelli, of Mantua, about 1540; the latter probably a pupil of Dardelli. Some of his instruments, of about the year 1550, are still extant.
3These old masters made only viols, of all sorts and all sizes, and their works in their original form have only come down in very rare instances, as they were for the most part broken up to repair instruments now in use. It was after the middle of the sixteenth century that the reduced form of the viol, the "violino," our violin of to-day, appeared; and about the same time the great Italian school of makers, which we now preceed to describe, began to take real form.
5THE SCHOOL OF BRESCHIA.
7The leading representative of this school is Gaspar da Salo, so called because he was born in the little town of Salo. He is the first artist whose violins we possess; and he was at the same time one of the greatest masters of his craft in the sixteenth century. The period of his greatest activity is held to have been from 1560 to 1610. He won great celebrity by his viols, 'cellos, and contrabasses,—a class of instruments which in his days were in far greater demand than the violin itself, although some very fine examples of his work as a violin maker are known. A truly splendid specimen of a Gaspar da Salo violin formed part of a famous collection of instruments at Milan, sold in 1807. Of another, which in 1788 was in the hands of the Baron von Bagge, Rudolf Kreutzer spoke with immense admiration and wonder.
9The violins of Gaspar da Salo are of a somewhat large build, with strong curves, and varnished with a dark brown varnish; but their shape corresponds little with that adopted by the great Italian makers. The middle bouts are cut very shallow: the corners project but little, and are strongly rounded; while the sound-holes are large,
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