Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Scan 102

Violins and violin makers. Biographical dictionary of the great Italian artistes, their followers and imitators, to the present time. With essays on important subjects connected with the violin, 1866

4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 94. See the scan on archive.org.

1Like pictures, the Cremona Violins are real works of art, and like them also, were once to be had for trifling sums. Cuyps and Paul Potters, Stradiuarii and Guarnerii were once to be had for three or four pounds each that are now worth as many hundreds. A Cremona instrument has even been considered a worthy gift to pass between crowned heads, Pope Pius V. having presented a violoncello by Andreas Amati to Charles IX. of France. Fleeting however are the honours of time! Cremona has lost its most famous names from among its citizens, and with them its most distinguished characteristic. For nearly a hundred years no maker of great skill has arisen to dispute the glory of the place with the Amati, Stradiuarius, and Guarnerius, by whom the fame of Cremona will be carried to the latest generations.
3It is now about three centuries since there flourished at Cremona its first great violin maker. Andreas Amati appears to have been born there in 1520, and died in 1580. The family was an ancient one, and is mentioned as early as 1097 in the records of the city. It

The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.