The extraordinary industry of the great master Antonio Stradivari is well known. Notwithstanding the minute care and precision which characterised his work, he may safely be credited with the construction of not less than two thousand instruments during his long and active life. We have evidence that he remained at his bench to the very end of his days, for in a document to which further reference is made below we find mention of a perfect instrument bearing date 1736, with his age, inscribed with his own hand upon the label as ninety-two.[[2]]
The instruments made by Stradivari were for the most part distributed throughout the Courts and noble houses of Europe. We have records of several concertos of instruments made by him upon the commission of the Courts of Spain, Modena, Tuscany, Poland, and others, from the time when he began to acquire a European reputation. Among these was the great concerto presented by the Cremonese Nobleman, the Marchese Bartolommeo Ariberti, to the Court of Tuscany, and containing that marvellous instrument which, after being long hidden from the world, came to light in recent times and excited so much admiration two years ago, when it was first exhibited in this country. There were, however, undoubtedly many fine specimens of his work remaining in their maker’s hands at the time of his death, and these passed into the possession of his family. Fortunately, from a manuscript which remained in the possession of an enthusiastic Cremonese chronicler, Vincenzo Lancetti, we learn the fate of some of the instruments inherited by the great maker’s sons. Lancetti was an active man of letters, and the author of important biographical works, including “Cremonese Worthies,” “A Dictionary of Pseudonyms,” “A Dictionary of the Poets Laureate of every Nation,” and numerous other books, published between 1796 and 1830, when he was in Milan as Director of the Archives of the War Office. In 1823, having in contemplation a biographical memoir of the violin makers of his native town, he enlisted the assistance of the wealthy amateur and great connoisseur, Count Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont.) The work unhappily was never completed, but Count Salabue’s original sketch for the memoir (in the hand of his amanuensis, here partly reproduced in fac-simile) affords us some valuable information on the subject. From this memorandum, dated “Milan, January, 1823,” we learn that, in addition to the large number of Stradivari’s violins scattered throughout Europe, ninety-one were in his possession at the time of his death. In 1775 ten of these instruments were still in the hands of his son Paolo, the youngest child of his second marriage, who sold them in that year, together with two choice instruments by Francesco Stradivari (the second son), and all the forms, models, and tools left by their father, to the Count Salabue, whose collection has become so famous in the annals of the Cremona School.
The name of this amateur must ever be held in grateful remembrance for his loving care of the Italian masterpieces. It is to such men that we owe the preservation of nearly all the finest existing instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. Endowed with great wealth and rare judgment, he formed an unrivalled representative collection of the works of the great masters of the craft, and by his careful researches amassed an amount of information which might well have served as an invaluable tradition of an apparently vanishing art. To such a man the acquisition of ten undoubted specimens of the incomparable Stradivari must have been one of the greatest events of his life.
The Count’s memorandum informs us that his purchase included two masterpieces of the great maker; one of large size, with a label bearing date 1716, and another of medium size, dated 1736, and bearing on the label the inscription “d’anni 92,” in Stradivari’s own hand; both quite new and untouched, and rare models for a good maker. The former instrument, with which we are now concerned, is described in the memorandum as of exquisite workmanship, and perfect quality of wood, with a tone of great evenness and power.
This remarkable violin, received at first hand from the very workshop of its great maker, remained carefully preserved in the Count Salabue’s collection at Milan, until after his death. It is a noteworthy instance of the fascination exercised by a perfect violin, that no one of the successive owners of this splendid instrument, from Stradivari himself downwards, would part with it until called away by death. After the death of the Count, his heirs in 1827 sold the Stradivari of 1716 to a man whose career merits a passing notice, on account of the important part he played in rescuing innumerable works of the greatest violin makers from obscurity and, perhaps, destruction.
Si’ grande fu poi il numero de’
Violini principalmente che fabbricò
esso Antonio Stradivari che dopo
esserne sparsi per tutta l’Europa
nè lasciò al suo decesso. No. 91, entra
nel 1775. ve ne erano soltanto che
dieci che amperò dal figlio Paolo il
suddto. Conte Cozio assieme a due Capi
d’opera di suo figlio Francesco.
Nella più volte citata Collezione
del Sigr. Conte Cozio si ritiene due de’
principali Capi d’opera di esso celeberrimo
Antonio Stradivari, cioè quello
dì forma più grande, e bellissimo di lavori
e di legno, e di perfetta qualità, egualianza
di voce, e di gran forza portante
nel Viglietto contropostovi 1716., e’l
altro sebbene di forma mezzana portami
nel biglietto l’anno 1736., ed al difratto
l’indicazione S’ anni 92. scritta dallo
stesso Stradivari, che’ assai si approssima
alla perfezione, ed alla forza
di voce del precedente, ed entrambi affatto
nuovi, ad intatti per cui’ possono
servire di scielti modelli ad un buon
fabbricatore d’istromenti.
TRANSLATION.
“So large was the number of (instruments and) especially violins, made by Stradivari that, in addition to those distributed over the whole of Europe, ninety-one were left by him at his death. In 1775 ten of these still remained in the hands of his son, Paolo, and were then bought, together with two masterpieces of his other son, Francesco, by Count Cozio. In the collection of the Count Cozio—so often cited—are two of the greatest masterpieces of the most famous Antonio Stradivari. The one, of larger size—of most beautiful workmanship and wood—of perfect quality—having a very powerful and even tone—bears on the label the date 1716. The other has on the label the date 1736, and, written below by Stradivari himself, the inscription “92 years old.” This violin, though of medium size, nearly equals the earlier instrument in perfection and power of tone. Both are quite new and intact and well suited to serve as choice models for a good instrument maker.”
Luigi Tarisio was a man of humble birth, and followed the calling of a carpenter in the small village of Fontaneto, near Novara, in Piedmont, where also the celebrated Viotti was born. Taking up fiddle playing as an amusement, Tarisio was led by degrees to devote his attention to the subtle beauties of the great instruments of his country, the pursuit of which became the absorbing passion of his life. So strong was its influence that he left his trade and home to wander about the country in search of violins. The experience thus acquired soon taught him to appreciate the merits of the great creations of Brescia, Cremona, and the other homes of violin making in Italy, and the commercial instinct, which formed so marked an element of his character, convinced him that the increasing demand for these instruments might be turned to profitable account.