The Violin | Page 2

concerning
the makers of his native city. Taking as he does a deep and enthusiastic
interest in the past history of Cremonese art, he spared no effort to
obtain for me all the information possible. To him I am also indebted
for the contents of the correspondence relative to the purchase, by
Count Cozio di Salabue, of the tools used by Antonio Stradivari, and
for the same having been placed at my disposal by the Marquis dalla
Valle. In making these acknowledgments, I desire to tender Signor
Sacchi my warmest thanks for the interest he has taken in my
undertaking.[2]
[Footnote 1: Signor Sacchi is the author of--
1. "Cenni sulla vita e le opere di Agostino Aglio pittor Cremonese."
Cremona, 1868. 8vo.
2. "Notizie pittoriche Cremonesi." Cremona, 1872. 4to.
3. "I Tipografi Ebrei di Soncino." Cremona, 1877. 4to.
4. "Annali Tipografici della Cittae provincia di Cremona,"
and many other memoirs on Cremonese printers and painters.]
[Footnote 2: Signor Sacchi died in 1902.--ED.]
The Section containing the Anecdotes has been recruited by additional
Miscellanea, including "Hudibras and the Champion Crowdero." In
placing this piece of wit and humour before my readers, I have
endeavoured to do so in a form as connected as possible, by the
selection of passages likely to conduce to that end, without trespassing
too much on space, and on the reader's patience.
I am indebted to Mr. G. D. Bishopp for the table containing the amount
of tension of Violin strings, and their downward pressure. The

information therein contained will doubtless be acceptable to many of
my readers.
I owe to M. le Chevalier Kraus, of Florence, the pleasure of including
among the engravings those of the instruments made by Antonio
Stradivari for the Grand Duke of Florence, he having obtained for me
the necessary photographs.
In conclusion, I have to thank my young friend Mr. Allan Fea for the
two illustrations forming the head and tail pieces to "Hudibras and the
Champion Crowdero."
28, Wardour Street, London, 1884.

PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITORS
Pending the completion of a more costly revised version of the late Mr.
Hart's work, the editors, in compliance with what seems to be a
widespread public desire, have decided to reprint the volume, as issued
in popular form and finally corrected by the author in 1887, but with
additions and certain emendations desirable in order to bring it into
accord with the present state of knowledge, and to enhance its value as
a work of reference. To this end the names of a considerable number of
makers, either unknown at the time, or not deemed of sufficient
prominence for insertion in the edition of 1887, have been incorporated
in the text, together with particulars of the distinctive features of their
work; and the notices relating to others have, where needful, been
modified or recast. In other respects the book remains substantially as
the author left it.
28 Wardour Street November, 1909.

CONTENTS
SECTION I.--THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN. PAGE

1.--General observations--Early History involved in obscurity and
vague conjecture--Jubal, Orpheus, and Apollo--Views of Early
Historians of Music, as to Asiatic and Scandinavian origin
respectively--Ravanon, King of Ceylon, and the
"Ravanastron"--Researches of Sanscrit Scholars--Suggested Arabian
origin of the Ribeca, or Rebec, and the Rehab of the Moors--Early
Egyptian instruments--Moorish musical influence in Spain--The
Troubadours and Trouveres in Northern France, and the Gigeours of
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11
2.--Early evidence of Bowed Instruments in the north of
Europe--Presumed Scandinavian origin of the German Geige--The Hon.
Roger North's "Memoirs of Music"--Martinus Gerbertus, his "De Cantu
et Musica Sacra"--Paul Lacroix' "Arts of the Middle Ages"--Earliest
known representations of Bowed Instruments, sixth to ninth
century--The Manuscript of St. Blasius--The Cheli or Chelys--Saxon
Fiddle in the Cottonian Manuscripts, and in Strutt's "Sports and
Pastimes"--The early Saxons' love of Music--The Saxon Fithele in the
time of the Norman Conquest--The Geige in France, and the Jongleurs,
"dancers, jugglers, and buffoons"--Domestic Music in Germany and the
Low Countries in the sixteenth century--The Viol and the
Madrigal--Music in Italy--Adrian Willaert, "The Father of the
Madrigal"--Northern Musicians attracted to Italian
Courts--Development of the Madrigal in Italy--High standard of early
Italian work, but under German teaching--The Viols of Brensius of
Bologna--Silvestro Ganassi, his work on the Viol--Duiffoprugcar and
Gasparo da Salo and the development of the Violin--The Fretted
Finger-board--The Violono or Bass Viol--Five-stringed Viols--The
three-stringed Fiddle, or Geige, attributed to Andrea Amati, altered by
the Brothers Mantegazza to a four-stringed Violin--Advent of the
four-stringed Violin ascribed to Gasparo da
Salo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-26
SECTION