inguished physician, and the
Marchese Senatore Araldi Erizzo, presented to the Institution referred
to an important collection of rare books and documents illustrative of
the history of the City of Cremona. Among these are two sets of MSS.,
numbered respectively 729 and 431, the contents of which shed much
light on the Italian sections of our subject, and constitute the
source of the principal portion of the additional information
contained in the following pages. The first-named MS. is the work of
Don Desiderio Arisi, a monk of the order of St. Jerome, who in the
quiet of his cell in the Convent of St. Sigismondo set himself the
task of writing brief notices of Cremonese worthies. The MS. is dated
1720, and includes a most interesting account of the patronage enjoyed
by Antonio Stradivari, together with several items of information of
more or less worth, relative to the famous Violin-maker. In passing,
it may be mentioned that Don Desiderio Arisi was intimate with
Stradivari, and gained his knowledge of the facts he recorded from the
artist himself. The second-named MSS., from which extracts have been
made, are dated 1823. These contain references to the principal makers
of Cremona, combined with critical remarks on their works from the pen
of Vincenzo Lancetti, a Cremonese poet and biographer. The information
contained in these MSS. was chiefly received from Count Cozio di
Salabue in the course of correspondence between him and Lancetti.

Nearly the whole of the extracts to which the reader's attention has
been directed were given to me as far back as the year 1875, when the
original edition of this work was in the press. Finding it impossible
to make adequate use of them, in consequence of the volume being
partly printed, I decided to insert a few items at the end of the
notice of Antonio Stradivari, and to hold over the remainder in order
to distribute the information among the notices of the several makers
in a future edition.

I am indebted for the knowledge of the existence of the Arisi and
Lancetti MSS., and for their contents, to my friend Signor Federico
Sacchi,[1] who during his researches among the Robolotti collection
had free access to all the original documents, and whose family has
long lived near the house occupied by Stradivari. With these
advantages, it is almost needless to remark that my friend possessed
ample means of aiding me in my endeavours to learn much concerning the
makers of his native ci