6

XIX. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1733
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1741
Antonio Stradivari. 1726 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

XX. Gasparo da Salo
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1735 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

XXI. Antonio Stradivari. 1690 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

"Marriage at Cana," by Paolo Veronese . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Tartini's Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

THE VIOLIN
ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS

SECTION I
The Early History of the Violin

1.

The early history of the Violin is involved in obscurity, and in
consequence, much diversity of opinion exists with regard to it. The
chief object of the writer of these pages is to throw light upon the
instrument in its perfected state. It is, therefore, unnecessary to
enter at great length upon the vexed question of its origin. The
increased research attendant upon the development of musical history
generally could hardly fail to discover facts of more or less
importance relative to the origin of instruments played with a bow;
but although our knowledge in this direction is both deeper and wider,
the light shed upon the subject has not served to dissipate the
darkness attending it. Certain parts have been illumined, and
conclusions of more or less worth have been drawn therefrom; for the
rest, all remains more hopelessly obscured and doubtful than the
identity of the "Man in the Iron Mask" or the writer of the "Letters
of Junius."

It is satisfactory to know that the most valuable and interesting part
of our subject is comparatively free from that doubt and tradition
which necessarily attaches to the portion belonging to the Dark or
Middle Ages. When we reflect that Music--as we understand it--is a
modern art, and that all instruments of the Viol and Fiddle type, as
far as the end of the fifteenth century, were rude if not barbarous,
it can scarcely excite surprise that our interest should with
difficulty be awakened in subtle questions pertaining to the
archaeology of bowed instruments.

The views taken of the early history of the leading instrument have
not been more multiform than remote. The Violin has been made to
figure in history sacred and profane, and in lore classic and
barbaric. That an instrument which is at once the most perfect and the
most difficult, and withal the most beautiful and the most strangely
interesting, sho