quivalent to above 800
pounds in present English money. This purchase, made about fourteen
years after Stradivari began to manufacture on his own account, well
marks the progress he made. I have, however, further proof of his fame
and prosperity at this period in the valuable extracts from the
manuscript of Desiderio Arisi, at Cremona.

[Illustration: _Plate XI_. ANTONIO STRADIVARI. _Tenor_. Date 1690.
(Made for the Grand Duke of Florence.) ANTONIO STRADIVARI. 1734. (LATE
GEO. AMES, ESQ.)]

The knowledge Arisi had of Stradivari is shown by the following
remarks written by him in the year 1720. He says, "In Cremona is also
living my intimate friend Antonio Stradivari, an excellent maker of
all kinds of musical instruments.[17] It will not be out of place to
make special mention of his merits. His fame is unequalled as a maker
of instruments of the finest qualities, and he has made many of
extraordinary beauty, which are richly ornamented with small figures,
flowers, fruits, arabesques, and graceful interlaying of fanciful
ornaments, all in perfect drawing, which he sometimes paints in black
or inlays with ebony and ivory, all of which is executed with the
greatest skill, rendering them worthy of the exalted personages to
whom they are intended to be presented. I have thought proper,
therefore, to mention some works of this great master, in testimony of
the high esteem and universal admiration which he enjoys." These
prefatory remarks of Arisi are followed by several important
statements, which I have arranged in accordance with the different
periods it will be necessary to refer to in the course of this notice.

[Footnote 17: Mention is made by Lancetti that in the year 1820 the
Marquis Carlo dal Negro, of Genoa, possessed a Harp bearing the name
of Stradivari. Mandolines and other stringed instruments have been
seen with his name attached.]

"In the year 1682, on the 8th of September, the banker Michele Monzi,
of Venice, sent him an order for the whole set of Violins, Altos, and
Violoncellos which that gentleman sent as a present to King James of
England."[18] The interesting remarks of Arisi with regard to the
inlaid instruments of Stradivari are those we should expect from an
admirer of delicate artistic work, who possessed no special knowledge
of Violins as instruments of music. The existence of some of the
instruments to which he refers, together with the tracings of the
actual designs and the tools with which