Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/737

STRADIVARI. 1674, who died a spinster in 1748; Alessandro, born 1677, became a priest, died 1732; and lastly Omobono, born 1679, who also followed his father's trade, and died a bachelor in 1742.

In 1680, at the age of 30 or 31, Stradivari purchased the house now known as no. 1 Piazza Roma, but formerly known as no. 2 Piazza San Domenico, where for half a century and more he continued to carry on business, and where he built the innumerable instruments which have made his name a household word wherever stringed music is heard. He bought the house of the brothers Picenardi for 7000 imperial lire: the conveyance is dated June 3. The house is a plain structure of three storeys, situate at the south-western angle of the piazza, which was formerly bounded on the north by the great church of S. Domenico, and from which the piazza took its name. This church has now been pulled down, the piazza being thus considerably enlarged, and the whole space enclosed and converted into a public garden. On the ground-floor the house consists of two apartments, one fronting the piazza, the other opening into a little courtyard: a staircase at right angles on the left gives access to the upper storeys. Following the common practice of Italian artisans, Stradivari probably employed both the ground-floor rooms as workshops, and lived in the upper part with his wife and family, which, when he bought the house in 1680, consisted of his five children, the eldest girl 12 years of age, and of Susanna Capra, his wife's only daughter by her former marriage, then a girl of 17. Susanna resided with her mother and step-father at the house in the Piazza Roma, until December 1688, when she became the wife of Francesco Luca.

The period of Stradivari's first marriage lasted 10 years longer. On May 20, 1698, Francesca died, at the age of 58. Stradivari was then 48 or 49: and after the lapse of a little more than a year, he took unto himself a second wife. This was Antonia, daughter of Antonio Zambelli: the coincidence of names is curious. Antonia was 14 or 15 years younger than her husband, having been born on June 11, 1664: they were married at the church of San Donato on Aug. 24, 1699. By his second marriage Antonio had five children: Francesca, born 1700, died 1720; Giovanni B. Giuseppe, born 1701, died in infancy; Giovanni B. Martino, born 1703, died 1727; Giuseppe, born 1704, became a priest, and died at the age of 77 in 1781; and lastly Paolo, born 1708. Paolo was the only son of Stradivari who had issue, and it is through him that the present representatives of the family trace their descent. Antonia Stradivari survived three of her children, and died at the age of 73 on March 3, 1737. Her husband survived her only nine months, when he followed her to the grave at the ripe age of 87 or 88. He died on Dec. 18, and was buried on the following day. In 1729 he had purchased a burial-place in the great basilica of San Domenico. It had formerly belonged to Francesco Villani, who was buried there in 1721. In 1729 the heirs of Villani sold it to Stradivari. It was situated in the Chapel of the Rosary, on the left hand of the entrance. The economical habits of the fiddle-maker are illustrated by the fact that he had the old stone recut, the new inscription being cut at right angles to the old one, parts of which are still legible. When the basilica of San Domenico was demolished to make the new public garden, the stone which marked the burial-place of the Stradivaris was spared, and it is still preserved in the vaults of the Palazzo dei Tribunali.



Stradivari marks the culminating point of the art of making stringed instruments. It was he who perfected the model of the violin and its fittings. No improvement has been made since his time, and subsequent makers of the last century and a half have mostly copied him. The model of Cremona had been developing for nearly two centuries, when he gave it its final form. It is true that if we take the model of the Cremona violin as it left the hands of Antonius Amati, and compare it with the patterns of Nicholas Amati and of Stradivari, we shall find that Nicholas Amati had effected the chief improvements, and left but little for Stradivari to do. The Stradivari violin is an improved Nicholas Amati. We have the same main proportions and geometrical outline, and, what is of equal or greater importance, the same careful mechanical work in the inside (the blocks and linings being made and fitted on the same principle and with wood of the same quality), the same fine finish, and soft lustrous varnish. But in the Nicholas Amati, though sweet and resonant in tone, acoustic considerations did not predominate over certain of the traditions of design: and in this respect his successor had several reforms to effect. Stradivari's main improvements consisted (1) In lowering the height of the model, that is, the arch of the belly, and in altering this flattened curve to a more uniform arch, so as to afford greater resistance to the pressure of the strings. (2) In making the four corner blocks more massive, in an improved method of dove-tailing the linings at the blocks, and in giving a greater curvature to the middle ribs,