Scan 62
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 46. See the scan on archive.org.
1difficulties found in the new style of playing.* The great size of Servais' hand made it possible for him to play upon a larger instrument.
3The works of Stradivarius are distinguished from those of all other makers not only because of their superior qualities, but also by the extraordinary number of instruments which came from his hand. If with his violins we include the violas and 'cellos which he made, there are extant more than 1000 of his works. This vast number can only be explained by the great age to which he lived, and by the fact that he kept on working up to the last. Stradivarius, according to the Register of Deaths in the Church of St. Dominic at Cremona, was buried on the 19th of December, 1737, and he thus died on the 17th or 18th of the same month. He was of a tall but slender figure. His work-rooms were in the house No. 1239, St. Dominic's Place. By industry and economy he appears to have gained something more than a competence, for his fellow-townsmen were wont to say, "As rich as Stradivarius"; and, judging by the greater value of money in his time he must indeed have been possessed of wealth, seeing that he never sold a new fiddle for less than about £4.
5Vuillaume, to whom we are deeply indebted for so much varied information concerning Stradivarius, endeavours in the course of his book to set up an entirely new idea, viz., that in order to bring the tone of a violin to perfection, it need not be played on for a long time after it is made; and this he endeavours to prove from a Stradivarius which for sixty years remained in the collection of Count Cozio de Salabue, was bought by Tarisio in 1824, and at length came into Vuillaume's possession. He says that this violin had never been played on; the wood of which it was made was of really
7* Our author is here a trifle obscure; but he no doubt means to say that the small size of this 'cello enables a hand of moderate size to compass all sorts of difficulties. This is evident from his next sentence, where he says Servais had a very large hand, and could therefore use a large sized Strad 'cello.—Translator.
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