Books › 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 › scan 103
Scan 103
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
2 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 95. See the scan on archive.org.
1is a remarkable fact, and shows in a strong light the difference of manners and customs in different countries that both Amati and Stradivarius seem to have been of ancient and honourable families, and yet notwithstanding their adopting an avocation which would in England be thought to tarnish an old family name, they lived and died respected and honoured by their fellow citizens. There is no account of how or of whom Andrew Amati acquired the art of violin making; but it is clear that by some means he had attained to a considerable amount of skill. Under the head of Gaspar di Salo, we have however hazarded a conjecture that he had been to Brescia for the first principles of the art, but that he had adopted little that he found there except the varnish and the general routine of the workshop. Some of his instruments are described as beautifully made, and to have amber varnish of excellent quality of a deep rich yellow tinted with brown or light red colour. His violins appear to have been chiefly of the small pattern and high model. The backs are mostly cut the reverse way of the grain to the present rule,
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