Visit https://testbankbell.

com to download the full version and

explore more testbank or solutions manual

Test Bank for Human Resource Management, 11th

Edition, Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry
Gerhart, Patrick Wright

_____ Click the link below to download _____

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-human-
resource-management-11th-edition-raymond-noe-john-
hollenbeck-barry-gerhart-patrick-wright/

Explore and download more testbank or solutions manual at testbankbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Test Bank for Human Resource Management, 12th Edition,

Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick
Wright
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-human-resource-
management-12th-edition-raymond-noe-john-hollenbeck-barry-gerhart-
patrick-wright/

Test Bank for Human Resource Management, 10th Edition,

Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart Patrick Wright

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-human-resource-
management-10th-edition-raymond-noe-john-hollenbeck-barry-gerhart-
patrick-wright/

Solution Manual for Human Resource Management,

12th Edition, Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck Barry Gerhart
Patrick Wright
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-human-resource-
management-12th-edition-raymond-noe-john-hollenbeck-barry-gerhart-
patrick-wright/

Test Bank for Beginning and Intermediate Algebra An

Integrated Approach 6th Edition

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-beginning-and-
intermediate-algebra-an-integrated-approach-6th-edition/
Solution Manual for Engineering Electromagnetics, 9th
Edition, William Hayt John Buck

http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-engineering-
electromagnetics-9th-edition-william-hayt-john-buck/

Test Bank for American Government and Politics Today

Essentials 2017-2018 Edition 19th by Bardes

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-american-government-and-
politics-today-essentials-2017-2018-edition-19th-by-bardes/

Test Bank for Organic Chemistry, 6th Edition: Brown

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-organic-chemistry-6th-
edition-brown/

Test Bank for EKG Plain and Simple 4th Edition by Ellis
Chapters 12 15 18 Not Included

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-ekg-plain-and-
simple-4th-edition-by-ellis-chapters-12-15-18-not-included/

Test Bank for Operations Management 12th Edition by Heizer

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-operations-
management-12th-edition-by-heizer/
Test Bank for International Business Law and Its
Environment, 10th Edition, Richard Schaffer

http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-international-business-
law-and-its-environment-10th-edition-richard-schaffer/
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Violin
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Violin

Author: George Dubourg

Release date: July 21, 2012 [eBook #40289]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: E-text prepared by Linda Cantoni, Turgut Dincer, Bryan

Ness, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
available by the Google Books Library Project
(http://books.google.com)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIOLIN ***

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Violin, by George Dubourg

Note: Images of the original pages are available through the the
Google Books Library Project. See
http://books.google.com/books?vid=7y0DAAAAQAAJ&id

T H E V I O L I N :
SOME ACCOUNT OF THAT

LEADING INSTRUMENT,
AND ITS

MOST EMINENT PROFESSORS,

FROM ITS EARLIEST DATE TO THE PRESENT TIME;
 WITH

HINTS TO AMATEURS, ANECDOTES, ETC.

BY

GEORGE DUBOURG.

FOURTH EDITION,
REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED.

LONDON:
ROBERT COCKS AND CO.
PUBLISHERS TO THE QUEEN,

NEW BURLINGTON STREET;

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. STATIONERS’-HALL COURT.

MDCCCLII.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY J. MALLETT,
WARDOUR STREET.

PREFACE
TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
After a lapse of nearly sixteen years since this little work first
appeared in print, I have been called upon to prepare it anew for the
press, incorporating with it the additional matter necessary for the
extension of the subject to the present time.
My new readers may like to know, at the outset, what is the
intended scope of the following pages. This is soon explained. My
object has been to present to the cultivators of the Violin, whether
students or proficients, such a sketch (however slight) of the rise
and progress of that instrument, accompanied with particulars
concerning its more prominent professors, and with incidental
anecdotes, as might help to enliven their interest in it, and a little to
enlarge what may be called their circumstantial acquaintance with it.
This humble object has not been altogether, I trust, without its
accomplishment;—and here, while commending my renovated
manual to the indulgent notice of the now happily increasing
community of violin votaries, I would not forget to acknowledge,
gratefully, the liberal and generous appreciation with which, when it
first ventured forth, it was met by the public press, and introduced
into musical society.
G. D.
Brighton, August, 1852.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.

The Fiddle Family—the Epigonion—the Semicon—the Plectrum—the

Magadis and Sambuce—Orpheus and the lyre—the Plectrum an
implement of percussion, not a bow—the Egyptian Chelys—Orpheus
 at Versailles—the fidicula of the Latin Dictionary—Welch claims—
Crowd and Crowder—Instrument of the Saxon Glee-men—Strutt’s
sports and pastimes—Italy—Successive stages of the invention—the
Sounding-board—the neck—the bow—the Rebec—the viol—
conversion of the viol into the violin—the tenor viol, &c.—chest of
viols—Cremona fiddles—Hieronymus Amati—Galilei’s dialogues—claim
of the Neapolitans—violins and organs in Verona in 1580—Corelli’s
Violin, and Annibale Caracci—Piccoli Violini alla Francese—
Monteverdi’s Orfeo—Mersennus—the Barbiton—the Kit—the Musurgia
of Luscinius—the Rebec and Viol-di-Gamba—Violars accompanying
the troubadours—Saxon word Fidle, German Videl, Icelandic Fidla, &c.
—Fythelers of the old English romances—passage from the Life of St.
Christopher—Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales—Absolon, the parish
clerk—the ribible—the violin in low esteem before the Restoration—
minstrels included among rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars—
Percy’s reliques—King of the minstrels—Butler’s Hudibras—Crowdero
—France—sculptures on the portal of Notre Dame, in Paris—the
Decameron—Michele Todini—the first to introduce the Double Bass—
Arms of the Town of Alzei—Inhabitants called Fiddlers—Cushion
Dance described—Hone’s table book—Miss Hutton’s Oakwood Hall—
Punch and the fiddler—‘a regularly educated Zany’—Purcell’s catches
—Epigram upon Young, father and son—Anthony à Wood’s
Autobiography—the Restoration favourable to music—the Violin
introduced at Court—Matthew Lock, master to the Court band—
Cambert, Lulli’s predecessor—the music of the drama: act tunes—
arrival of Nicolo Matteis—first music-engraving in England—‘Musick’s
Monument,’ and Thomas Mace.— pp. 1, et seq.

CHAPTER II.

THE ITALIAN SCHOOL.

The Italians the first to develope the powers of the violin—the old and
modern schools—Baltazarini the early violin player—Giuseppe Guami—
Agostino Aggazzari introduced instrumental concertos into churches—
Carlo Farina—Michael-angelo Rossi—Giambattista Bassani—violin master
of Corelli—Torelli—Valentini—Arcangelo Corelli—Lulli’s jealousy of him
—publishes his first twelve sonatas—his solos—becomes acquainted
with Handel—visits Naples—anecdotes—sickens and dies—
anniversary performance in the Pantheon—his private character—
anecdotes—his will—contemporary performers—Don Antonio Vivaldi—
 Francesco Geminiani—visits Naples—comes to England—visits Ireland—
his death in Dublin—his character—anecdotes—lorenzo Somis—his
Suonate printed at Rome in 1722—stephano Carbonelli—resides with
the Duke of Rutland—leads the opera-band, &c.—becomes a wine-
importer—dies in 1772—epigram—Pietro Locatelli—Arte di nuova
modulazione—dies in 1764—Giuseppe Tartini—marries, and is
discarded by his family—settles at Venice—his appointment at the
church of St. Anthony of Padua—his Suonate and Concerti—his
Adagios—dies at Padua—the Devil’s sonata—the dream—a legend in
verse—Francesco Maria Veracini, the younger—anecdotes—an
excellent contrapuntist—Pietro Nardini—a favourite pupil of Tartini—
visits Tartini in his last illness—Thomas Linley one of his pupils—Luigi
Boccherini—settles in Spain—dies at Madrid in 1806—his compositions
—Felice Giardini—studies at Milan and Turin—visits Rome and Naples
—arrives in London—visits St. Petersburg, and dies at Moscow—his
character—Antonio Lolli—dies at Naples—anecdote—Gaetano Pugnani
—founds a school at Turin—his style—his compositions—anecdotes—
dies at Turin—Giovanni Mane Giornovichi (Jarnowick) pupil of Lolli—
loses his popularity—dies of apoplexy—anecdotes—Giovanni Battista
Viotti—eclipses Giornovichi—quits public life—anecdotes—ordered to
quit England—embarks in the wine trade—loses his fortune—proceeds
to Paris—retires on a pension—dies in England in 1824—his character
and compositions—Francesco Vaccari—his early proficiency—performs
in England—Masoni—leaves Italy for South America—goes to India—
visits England, 1834—an invitation in rhyme—Spagnoletti—his
enthusiasm—his liberality—his quarrel with Ambrogetti.—pp. 37, et
seq.

CHAPTER III.

PAGANINI.

Birth and parentage—surmises and false rumours—his early education—

his public début at Genoa—begins to travel on his own account—his
father’s rapacity—youthful excesses—a bidding for his violin—
renounces gaming—his favorite Guarnerius—enters the service of the
Princess of Parma—origin of his performances on one and two strings
—follows the Princess to Florence—his intense application—his
“Studies”—revisits Leghorn—anecdote—visits Turin and Ferrara—
attacked with disease—the story of his uniform—his friendship with
Rossini—contends with Lafont—remarks of M. Fétis and others—
 Paganini’s tribute to the excellence of Louis Spohr—gives two
concerts at Pavia—remarkable announcement—invited to Vienna in
1828, by Prince Metternich—the Pope confers on him the order of the
Golden Fleece—Mayseder’s despair—absurd and injurious rumours—
Paganini’s manifesto—his great popularity at Vienna—concert for the
benefit of the poor—anecdotes—visits Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and
Warsaw—opinions of the Berlin journalists—declines to compete with
Praun—epigram—visits Frankfort—mimicked on the stage—goes to
Paris—description of Paganini’s performance from La Globe, (with
cuts)—attempts to explain his method—M. Guhr’s Treatise—manner
of tuning the instrument—management of the bow—use of the left
hand—harmonics—double effects—Paganini’s wonderful gains—his
letter to the Révue Musicale—what occurred at Padua—the devil seen
at his elbow—foundation of the rumours—comes to England—
quotation from the “Athenæum”—stringing a gridiron—raising the
prices of admission—the Claqueurs—his first English concert—Mr.
Gardner’s description—quotations—Mori’s joke and Cramer’s
thankfulness—harmonic notes and staccato runs—farewell concert—
revisits Italy—purchases the Villa Gajona—proposes to publish—
decorated by Maria Louisa—want of health—gambling speculation—
serious illness—his last moments at Nice—his son Achilles—his burial
refused—superstitious rumours—his will—bequeaths his favorite violin
to the city of Genoa—his personal habits and peculiarities—his mode
of travelling—his habits at home—his desire of repose—anecdote of
an amateur—Paganini’s slender general knowledge—his projects—
mistrust of friends—his visitors—invitations—habits in company—
aversion to light—recollection of names—preparation for a concert—
rehearsal—his physical conformation—his influence on the art—a
“farewell”—his compositions—critical remarks of M. Fétis—conclusion.
—pp. 110, et seq.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FRENCH SCHOOL.

Italian and French Schools compared—state of instrumental performance

at the present time—style of Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, and Lafont—the
Conservatoire de Musique—its origin and effects—epigram—
Baltazarini (M. de Beaujoyeux)—Jean Baptiste de Lully—becomes
scullion to Mdlle. de Montpensier—elevated to the rank of Court
Musician—his career at Court—Louis the Fourteenth’s taste in music—
the establishment of an Opera—Lulli’s Te Deum for the King’s
recovery—an accident—his death—anecdote of his last score—his
style—Jean Marie le Clair (Lecler)—born at Lyons—style deviating from
the Italian school—appointed Symphonist to Louis XV—assassinated
in the streets of Paris—Jean Baptiste Senaillé—goes to Italy—returns to
Paris, 1719—his pupils—jean Pierre Guignon—his sonatas, duetts, trios,
and concertos—instructs the Dauphin—dies at Versailles—Gabriel
Guillemain—loses his faculties and destroys himself—Pierre Gaviniès—
appointed Professor at the Conservatoire—his works—François Joseph
Gossec—founds the Concert of Amateurs—his symphonies—Pagin—
instructed by Tartini—jealousy of the French musicians—their revenge
—Pierre Lahoussaye—plays at the Concert Spirituel when nine years old
—Pagin undertakes his instruction—goes to Italy—hears Tartini at
church—spends three years in London—appointed Professor of the
first class at the Conservatoire—Paisible—makes a progress through
several parts of Europe—dies by his own hand in 1781—Simon Leduc—
his extant compositions—anecdote of the Chevalier St. George—F.
Hippolite Barthélémon—serves as a midshipman—comes to England—
engaged at Vauxhall—Mondonville, and others—Viotti’s influence on
the French School—Castels De Labarre—premier violon at the Théâtre
François—Vacher—pupil of Viotti—performs at the Vaudeville Theatre,
&c.—Pierre Rode—shipwrecked on the English coast—obliged to quit
England—appointed Professor of the Violin at the Conservatoire—
travels—his death from paralysis in 1830— M. Fétis on his style—
Rodolphe Kreutzer—his mode of instruction—dies at Geneva—his
compositions—Charles Philippe Lafont—appears at Paris as a vocalist—
studies under Kreutzer and Rode—his residence at St. Petersburg—his
contest with Paganini—Pierre Baillot—Professor at the Conservatory—
his System for the violoncello—Alexandre Jean Boucher—his likeness to
Napoleon—Libon—first violinist to the Empress Josephine, to Marie
Louise, and to Charles X—Bellon—his performance at the
Philharmonic Concert—François-Antoine-Habeneck—appointed Director
of the Opera, and Inspector General of the Conservatoire—M.
Tolbecque and his brother—Prosper Sainton—admitted Bachelor of
Letters—enters the Conservatory—appears at the Philharmonic
Concerts in London—Belgian Artists—Charles Auguste de Bériot—early
development—visits England—his marriage with Malibran—anecdotes
—Henri Vieuxtemps—his success at Vienna, &c.—his sojourn at St.
Petersburg—crosses the Atlantic—Joseph Artot—pupil of the
Kreutzers.—pp. 176, et seq.

CHAPTER V.
 THE GERMAN SCHOOL.

The Schools of Germany, Italy, and France, compared—early performers—

David Funk—a capital performer and general scholar—the irregularity
of his life—his visit to the Castle of Schleitz—found dead—Thomas
Baltzar—first taught the whole shift in England—buried in
Westminster Abbey—Henry John Francis Biber—his solos—Godfrey
Finger—his style—Chapel-Master to King James II—John Gottlieb
Graun—Concert-Master to the King of Prussia—Francis Benda—
acquaintance with the Hebrew, Löbel—engaged by the Prince Royal
of Prussia—John Stamitz—his works—Leopold Mozart—appointed Valet-
de-Chambre Musicien—publishes his “Method” for the Violin—travels
with his son and daughter—his symphonies—William Cramer—leads at
the Commemoration of Handel—succeeded at the Opera by Viotti—
his two sons—Tassenberg—John Peter Salomon—his concerts in 1791—
treaty with Mozart—engagement with Haydn—his compositions, &c.—
his pupil Pinto—Charles Stamitz—John Frederick Eck—Andreas and
Bernard Romberg—their works—François Cramer—his character as a
leader—Friedrich Ernst Fesca—his quartetts—Christoph Gottfried
Kiesewetter—his last performances at Leicester—Louis Spohr—
patronized by the Duke of Brunswick—travels—becomes Concert-
Master, &c. to the Duke of Saxe Gotha—visits England in 1820—his
style criticised—the Norwich Musical Festival in 1839—his “Violin-
Schule”—his compositions—Charles William Ferdinand Guhr—his work
on Paganini’s mode of playing—Joseph Mayseder—Bernhard Molique—
his appointments—his reception in Paris—his compositions—Ernst-Ole
Bull, the Norwegian artist—his arrival in Paris during the prevalence
of the cholera—his life and history—gives a concert—his successes
detailed—his style—The Brothers Labitsky.—pp. 222, et seq.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.

State of the musical art in England—Purcell’s Sonatas and Trios—John

Banister—davis Mell—described by Anthony à Wood—Sonatas
published by John Jenkins—history of John Banister the elder—John
Banister, jun.—Obadiah Shuttleworth—Henry Eccles—assisted in the
second part of the “Division Violin”—Purcell’s Airs composed for the
Theatre—the arrival of Geminiani and Veracini, forming an epoch—
William Corbett—resides in Rome—political suspicions—his works—his
 bequest to Gresham College—Michael Christian Festing—founds the
Royal Society for the support of Decayed Musicians—succeeded by
Abraham Brown—Thomas Pinto—joint leader with Giardini at the
Opera—Matthew Dubourg—pupil of Geminiani—appointed Master and
Composer of the State Music in Ireland—instructs the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of Cumberland—his odes—his solos and concertos—his
intimacy with Handel—anecdotes—John Clegg—promoted by Handel—
confined in Bedlam—Thomas Collet—remarkable accident—Francis
Hackwood—convivial anecdotes—Abel and the Viol-da-Gamba—
Richard Cudmore—his early distinction—instances of his versatile talent
—G. F. Pinto—the victim of dissipation—Thomas Linley, jun.—taught by
Dr. Boyce and Nardini—his death from the upsetting of a pleasure
boat—Thomas Cooke—his career—anecdotes and bon mots—Nicholas
Mori—his precocious performances—becomes a Director of the
Philharmonic Concerts, and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music
—becomes affected with cerebral disease—his character and ability—
Mr. Loder, of Bath—Henry Gattie—Antonio James Oury—his early career
in arms and art—marries Mdlle. Belleville, with whom he makes the
tour of Europe—his pupils—Joseph Haydon Bourne Dando—introduces
public quartett-playing in England—music in the City—a jeu d’esprit—
the several Quartett Societies—Henry C. Cooper—Edward William
Thomas—Bream Thom—Charles Frederick Hall—remarks on Chamber
Concerts, and the Royal Academy of Music—Neil Gow.—pp. 258, et
seq.

CHAPTER VII.

AMATEURS.

The amateur compared with the professor—the witty Duke of Buckingham—

a saying of Dr. Johnson’s—Dr. Cooke giving a lesson—The Baron Bach
—characteristic sketches—amateur quartett-parties—a story, with a
mistake!—Sir William Hamilton—Epigrams—on an aged musical trifler
—Ralph Rasper—advice to amateurs—the scales—Corelli’s solos—
Spohr’s Violin-School—no real self-taught violinists—epigram—self-
knowledge necessary—qualities necessary to the leader of an
amateur party—opera music—listening to classical quartetts—a story
—friendly advice in rhyme.—pp. 312, et seq.

CHAPTER VIII.
 FEMALE VIOLINISTS.

(See Addendum, page 397).

Objections to ladies playing the violin, answered—Queen Elizabeth and her

violin—Madame Mara—her early practice on the violin—Maddalena
Lombardini Siemen—reprint of a letter from Tartini to her—Regina
Schlick—her maiden name Sacchi—a particular friend of Mozart—
anecdote of Mozart and the Sonata in B flat minor—Louise Gautherot
—Minerva and the flute—Luigia Gerbini—pupil of Viotti—Signora
Paravicini—patronized by the Empress Josephine—her reverses and
subsequent success—her graceful mode of bowing—Catarina Calcagno
—receives instructions from Paganini—Madame krahmen—Mdlle. Schulz
—Mdlle. Eleanora Neumann—Madame Filipowicz—Horace Walpole’s visit
to St. Cyr—Mrs. Sarah Ottey.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE VIOLIN.

The subject stated—Otto’s treatise—the component parts of the violin—

the Cremonas and their makers—Hieronymus Amati—Antonius Amati—
Nicholas Amati—Antonius Straduarius—Joseph Guarnerius—
distinguishing characteristics of these makers—Tyrolese instruments—
Jacob Steiner—later Tyrolese makers—Klotz—Statelmann, of Vienna,
and others—repairers—the principles of construction—the bass-bar,
sound post, bridge, f holes, &c.—strings (called Roman) from Milan—
means of producing a smooth, clear tone—Andreas Amati—Gaspar De
Salo—Giovanni Granzino—Giovanni Paolo Magini—career of Antonio
Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri, and of Jacob Steiner—notable sums
offered for instruments—imitators—Richard Duke and the London
makers—M. Chanot’s investigation into the true form of the violin—
result—M. Savart’s experiments—M. Vuillaume’s copies—his adventures
in search of materials—copies Paganini’s Guarnerius—his probity—
specimens at the Great Exhibition of All Nations—construction of
bows—Beware of Vampers!—pp. 341, et seq.

CHAPTER X.

MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES, COLLECTED SCRAPS, ECCENTRIC VARIETIES, &C.

Characteristics of the fiddle species—a caricature repudiated—ambition let
down—a new resource in difficulty—a prejudice overcome—fifty
years’ fiddling—another fifty years of it—glory made out of shame—
discrimination—the Cremona fiddle—an apt quotation—the leading
instrument victorious—sending for time-keepers—musical exaction—a
device for a dinner—a ‘practising’ coachman—a footman to match—a
royal ‘whereabout’—precocious performers—fiddlers’ tricks—eccentric
varieties of the violin kind—the fiddle of Ireland—of Tartary—African
fiddle—Greek fiddle—an eight-stringed violin—an intermediate
instrument—something more than a violin—an air violin—automaton
violinist—the street-fiddler—epigrams.—pp. 364, et seq.
 THE VIOLIN,
ETC.

CHAPTER I.
ORIGINAL AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.

First seat him somewhere, and derive his race.—Dryden.

The Fiddle Family, like other tribes that have succeeded in making a
noise in the world, has given exercise to the ingenuity of learned
theorists and time-seekers, who have laboured to discover for it an
origin as remote from our own era, as it is, I fear, from any kind of
truth. It has probably been conceived that the Fiddle, associated as
he has been, from generation to generation, with jigs, country-
dances, fairs, junketings and other rusticities, had descended too
low in the scale of society—that he had rendered himself, as
Shakspeare for a while did his own genius, “stale and cheap to
vulgar company”—and that he required to be reminded of his
primitive dignity, and of his very high ancestral derivation—if he had
any. This latter point was of course to be first established; but, as
your zealous antiquary is a wholesale dealer in time, and is never at
a loss for a few centuries to link his conjectures to, the matter was
easy enough; indeed, the more doubtful, the better, since doubt is
the very life of theory. Accordingly, we have been invited to fall back
upon “the ancients,” and to recognize the Epigonion as the dignified
and classic prototype of our merry and somewhat lax little friend,
the Fiddle. To certain ancient Greek tablets relative to music, which
have been somewhere brought to light, Professor Murchard has
minutely assigned the date of 709 years before the Christian era;
and the following passage, Englished from his translation, is stoutly
alleged by the antiquarian advocates of the glories of the violin race:
—“But Pherekydes began the contest, and sat himself down before
all the people, and played the Epigonion;—for he had improved the
same; and he stretched four strings over a small piece of wood, and
played on them with a smooth stick. But the strings sounded so, that
the people shouted with joy.”
This is plausible enough, but far from conclusive. It is but the outline
of a description, and admits of various modes of filling up. If the
instrument partook at all of the violin character, it might seem, from
the reference which its name bears to the knees, to have been the
rude progenitor of either the double-bass or the violoncello, which
have both, as is well known, their official post between the knees:
but then, the prefix of ἐπί would denote that it was played upon the
knees of the artist. “Very well,” says the antiquarian; “it was a fiddle
reversed.” “Nay, Dr. Dryasdust, if you yourself overturn what you are
about, I have no need to say more.” Au reste, let any body stretch
four strings over a small piece of wood, and play on them with a
smooth stick, and then take account of what it comes to. No, no;
whatever the Epigonion may have been to the Greeks, he is nothing
to us: he may have been a respectable individual of the musical
genus of his day, when people blew a shell or a reed, and called it
music; but we cannot for a moment receive him as the patriarch of
the Fiddle Family. As soon should we think of setting up Pherekydes
against Paganini.
Dismissing the Epigonion, we come to the Semicon, another
pretender of Greek origin. This also, we are farther told, was a kind
of violin: but we deny that he was father to the violin kind. The
Semicon is said to have been played on with a bow; and yet a
learned German (Koch), in the fulness of his determination to have
strings enough to his bow, has claimed no less than thirty-five, as
the complement of the Semicon. How could any bow pay its devoirs
distinctly to thirty-five strings? Here, then, the dilemma is this: either
to translate the thing in question into a bow is to traduce the term,
or else the strings are an impertinence. Utrum horum mavis, accipe.
If the word plectrum could, by any ingenuity, be established to mean
a bow, quotations enough might be accumulated to prove that
instruments played with bows had their origin in a very remote
period. But the translation of the word into a bow, or such like thing,
as we find it in the Dictionaries, arises simply from the want of a
known equivalent—a deficiency which makes it necessary to adopt
any term that offers even the shadow of a synonym.
It has been stated, on the authority of a passage from Euphorion’s
book on the Isthmian Games, that there was an ancient instrument
called magadis, which was surrounded by strings; that it was placed
upon a pivot, upon which it turned, whilst the performer touched it
with the bow (or, at least, the plectrum); and that this instrument
afterwards received the name of sambuce.
The hieroglyphics of Peter Valerian, page 628, chap. 4, present the
figure of a muse, holding, in her right hand, a kind of bass or contra-
violin, the form of which is not very unlike that of our violins or
basses.
Philostratus, moreover, who taught at Athens, during the reign of
Nero, gives a description of the lyre, which has been thus translated:
—
“Orpheus,” he says, “supported the lyre against his left leg, whilst he
beat time by striking his foot upon the ground; in his right hand he
held the bow, which he drew across the strings, turning his wrist
slightly inwards. He touched the strings with the fingers of his left
hand, keeping the knuckles perfectly straight.”
From this description (if bow it could be called, which bow was
none), it would appear as if the lyre to which Philostratus alludes
were, forsooth, the same instrument which the moderns call the
contra-violin, or viola di gamba! To settle the matter thus, however,
would be indeed to beg the question.
As before observed, the word plectrum is, in the dictionaries,
translated by bow; but, even if this were a warranted rendering of
the word, it remains to be ascertained not only whether the bows of
the ancients were of a form and nature corresponding with ours, but
also whether they were used in the modern way. Did the ancients
strike their bow upon the strings of the instrument—or did they draw
forth the sound by means of friction? These questions are still
undecided; but opinions preponderate greatly in favor of the belief
that the plectrum was an implement of percussion, and therefore not
at all a bow, in our sense.
A recent French writer, Monsieur C. Desmarais, in an ingenious
inquiry into the Archology of the Violin, takes us back to the ancient
Egyptians, to whom he assigns the primitive violin, under the name
of the chélys, and suggests that its form must have resulted from a
studious inspection of one of the heavenly constellations!
M. Baillot, in his Introduction to the Méthode de Violon du
Conservatoire, speculating on the origin of the instrument, has a
passage which, in English, runs thus:—
“It is presumed to have been known from the remotest times. On
ancient medals, we behold Apollo represented as playing upon an
instrument with three strings, similar to the violin. Whether it be to
the God of Harmony that we should attribute the invention of this
instrument, or whether it claim some other origin, we cannot deny
to it somewhat that is divine.
“The form of the violin bears a considerable affinity to that of the
lyre, and thus favors the impression of its being no other than a lyre
brought to perfection, so as to unite, with the facilities of
modulation, the important advantage of expressing prolonged
sounds—an advantage which was not possessed by the lyre.”
This is pretty and fanciful, but far too vague to be at all satisfactory.
Apollo might appear to play on an instrument, in which antiquarian
ingenuity might discover some latent resemblance to the violin; but
where was his bow? M. Baillot has not ventured to assert that he
had one—and we may safely conclude that he had not, if we except
the bow that was his admitted attribute. As for the affinity to the
lyre, it is indeed as faint as the most determined genealogist,
studious of an exercise, could wish.
It has been remarked, by some curious observer, that, among the
range of statues at the head of the canal at Versailles, an Orpheus is
seen (known by the three-headed dog that barks between his legs),
to whom the sculptor has given a violin, upon which he appears
scraping away with all the furor of a blind itinerant. But is the statue,
or its original, an antique? We may rest in safe assurance that it is a
modern-antique; as much so, as the ingenious figment of Nero’s
fiddling a capriccio to the roaring accompaniment of the flames of
Rome!
As for the fidicula of the Romans (or rather, of the Latin Dictionary),
it is evidently, as far as it has been made to apply to the fiddle, no
legitimate family name. The violin very positively disowns all
relationship with it, and leaves it to settle its claims with the guitar.
As far as the mere name goes, however, it is not impossible that a
connection may exist, and that the word-hunting Skinner may be
right in deriving the Anglo-Saxon word fithele from the older German
vedel, and thence from the Latin fidicula, which, it is hardly
necessary to state, was any thing but a fiddle, and therefore “had no
business” to lend its appellation in the way here noticed.
On the whole, as regards the pretensions alleged on the side of the
ancients for the honor of having had the violin in existence among
them, it may be safely remarked, that, if nothing like the bow, which
is obviously connected most essentially with the expression and
character of the violin, can be traced to their days, the violin itself, à
fortiori, cannot be said to have belonged to them; and all those
questionable shapes which have been speculatively put forward as
possible fiddles, must be thrown back again into the field of
antiquarian conjecture, to await some other appropriation. The
following remarks by Dr. Burney may be taken as a fair summary of
all that needs to be observed on this head:
“The ancients seem to have been wholly unacquainted with one of
the principal expedients for producing sound from the strings of
modern instruments: this is the bow. It has long been a dispute
among the learned whether the violin, or any instrument of that
kind, as now played with a bow, was known to the ancients. The
little figure of Apollo, playing on a kind of violin, with something like
a bow, in the Grand Duke’s Tribuna at Florence, which Mr. Addison
and others supposed to be antique, has been proved to be modern
by the Abbé Winkelmann and Mr. Mings: so that, as this was the
only piece of sculpture reputed ancient, in which any thing like a
bow could be found, nothing more remains to be discussed relative
to that point.”—(Hist. of Music, 4to. vol. i, p. 494.)
The Welch, who are notoriously obstinate genealogists, have not
failed to mark the Fiddle for their own, and to assign him an origin,
at some very distant date, among their native mountains. In support
of this pretension, they bring forward a very ugly and clownish-
looking fellow, with the uncouth name of crwth. This creature
certainly belongs to them, and is so old as to have sometimes
succeeded in being mistaken, in this country, for the father of the
violin tribe—a mistake to which the old English terms of crowd for
fiddle, and crowder for fiddler, seem to have lent some countenance.
A little investigation, however, shows us that it was merely the
name, and not the object itself, that we borrowed, for a time, from
our Welch neighbours; and that, by a metonymy, more free than
complimentary, we fastened the appellation of crowd upon the violin,
already current among us by transmission from the continent. The
confusion thence arising has occasioned considerable
misapprehension: nor has the effect of it been limited to our own
island boundaries; for a French writer, M. Fétis, in one of his Letters
on the State of Music in England, reports the error, without any
apparent consciousness of its being such. Let us quote his passage
in English:
“The cruth is a bowed instrument, which is thought to have been the
origin of the viola and violin. Its form is that of an oblong square,
the lower part of which forms the body of the instrument. It is
mounted with four strings, and played on like a violin, but is more
difficult in the treatment, because, not being hollowed out at the
side, there is no free play for the action of the bow.”
“What!” exclaims the enquiring virtuoso, “is this box of a thing, this
piece of base carpentry, this formal oblong square, to be supposed
the foundation of that neat form and those graceful inflections which
make up the ‘complement externe’ of what men call the violin? Can
dulness engender fancy—and can straight lines and right angles
have for their lineal descendant the ‘line of beauty?’” The soberest
person would answer, this is quite unlikely; the man of taste would
deny it to be in the nature of things. No, no; our Cambrian codger
may have been a tolerable subject in his way—a good fellow for
rough work among the mountains, and instrumental enough in the
amusement of capering rusticity—but he must not be allowed, bad
musician though we freely admit he may have been, to give himself
false airs, and to assume honors to which his form and physiognomy
give the lie. Let him be satisfied to be considered “sui generis,”
unless he would rashly prefer illustrious illegitimacy, and be styled
the base violin.1
If we were disposed, in England proper, to get up a claim for the
first local habitation afforded to the violin, we might put together a
much better case for the instrument that was familiar to the Anglo-
Saxon gleemen, as early as the 10th century, than can be shown in
behalf of the candidate just dismissed. We could produce an
individual that should display a far better face, and should appear
with, at least, no great disgrace to the Fiddle Family, though bearing
about him none of the refinements of fashion. It may be as well to
exhibit him at once:—
In this representation (borrowed from “Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes
of the People of England”) we discern something which it is possible
to call a fiddle, without much violence to our notions “de rerum
natura.” There is grotesqueness, but not deformity: there is much of
the general character of the true violin, though some of its most
particular beauties are wanting. It is true that the sound-holes look
as if no notes save circulars were to be permitted to issue through
them—that the tail-piece seems forced to do duty for a bridge—that
the sides have no indented middle, or waist, to give the aspect of
elegance, and accommodate the play of the bow over the two
extreme strings—that the finger-board is non-existent—and that the
scroll, that crowning charm of the fiddle’s form, is but poorly made
amends for by the excrescent oddity substituted at the end of the
neck. With all this, however, there is visible warrant for calling it a
sort of fiddle. Though even a forty-antiquary power might fail to
prove it the origin of the stock, it has claims to be regarded as
exhibiting no very remote analogy to the violin; and thus far,
therefore, it may defy the competition of the Crwth. Whether it was
really born in Saxon England, however, or introduced from Germany,
might be a point for nice speculation, were it worth while to agitate
the enquiry.
Whither, then, are we to turn, after all, for the solution of this
problem in musical genealogy? That the violin is of a respectable
age, though not so old as what is commonly called antiquity, is a fact
apparent to the least laborious of enquirers; and it seems to have
been the practice, with those who have had occasion to touch on
this point, either to announce the said fact simply, and leave the
reader to make the most of it, or to mix up with it, by way of
elucidation, some general remark about the absence of light on the
matter. “The origin of the violin,” observes one of these authorities,
“like that of most of the several musical instruments, is involved in
obscurity. As a species of that genus which comprehends the viola,
violoncello, and violone, or double-bass, it must be very ancient.”
Similarly indefinite are the conclusions of others who have
approached the subject; so that it becomes necessary to dispense
with such embarrassing aid, and to help oneself to the truth, if it is,
peradventure, to be gathered. To me, much meditating on this
matter (if I may borrow Lord Brougham’s classic form of speech),
there seems reason to fix on Italy as the quarter to which we must
look for the “unde derivatur” required. Say, thou soft “Ausonia
tellus,” mother of inventions and nurse of the arts, say, soft and
sunny Italy, is it not to thee that belongs the too modest merit of
having produced and cherished the infancy, even as thou hast
confessedly supported and developed the after-growth and
advancement, of the interesting musical being whose history, in its
more secret passages, we are here exploring? Is it a world (as Sir
Toby feelingly asks), is it a world to hide virtues in? Well, if we
cannot obtain direct satisfaction, let us pursue the investigation of
our point a little more circuitously.
The perfect instrument which we now delight to honor by the name
of the violin—the instrument complete in form and qualities—“totum
in se teres atque rotundum”—appears to have been the result of a
highly interesting series of improvements in the art of producing
musical sounds from strings. How long a duration of time was
occupied by the elaboration of these improvements respectively, is
not readily to be ascertained, nor, perhaps, would the enquiry repay
the trouble—but the general order of progression in the
improvements themselves, is as clear as it is agreeable to
contemplate. The first great advancement consisted in the sounding-
board, by means of which invention a tone was produced, through
the vibration of the wood, that was incomparably better and fuller
than what was previously procured, through the mere vibration of
the strings. As the human voice is evolved from the mouth under a
concave roof, which serves it as a sounding-board, and gives
additional grace and vigour to its inflections, so does the upper shell
of the violin add a power of its own to the language of the strings.
The next improvement in the instrument, thus extended in capability,
was the neck or finger-board, which increased the range and variety
of the sounds, by giving to each string the power of producing a
series of notes. The bow was the next great step of advancement;
and this, like other important inventions, has provoked much learned
dispute as to the time and place of its origin, which however we
shall not here more particularly revert to, for indeed, “non nostrum
tantas componere lites.” With all these additions and appliances, we
come not yet to the instrument par excellence, the true violin; for an
intermediate and inferior state remains to be gone through. The
consideration of that state brings us to the regular construction of
the several instruments known by the general name of viol (for we
pass by the rebec, as being only a spurious or illegitimate kind of
fiddle), that were in the most common use during the 16th, and till
about the middle of the 17th, century. These were similar to each
other in form, but in size were distinguished into the treble-viol,
tenor-viol, and bass-viol. They had six strings, and a finger-board
marked with frets, like that of the lute or guitar2. Finally, as the
crowning change, the glorious consummation, came the conversion
of the viol into the violin, effected by a diminution of size, a
reduction of strings, from six to four, and the abolition of those
impediments to smoothness, and helps to irritation, the frets. The
same reformation attended the other instruments of the viol tribe,
which now became, mutato nomine, the viola and the violoncello.
In former days, we had the viol in,
’Ere the true instrument had come about:
But now we say, since this all ears doth win,
The violin hath put the viol out.

Thus, through a considerable tract of indefinite time, and a

succession of definite changes, we reach the matured and
accomplished instrument, the Violin proper; and then, if we recur to
the question, to whom does it belong? the answer becomes less
difficult. It is to this instrument, this perfected production, that the
Italians may, I think, exultingly point as their own; and, in doing so,
they may well afford to be indifferent to all disputes about the title
to those earlier apparitions, those crude and half-made-up
resemblances to the fiddle, that were but as the abortions which, in
human experience, sometimes precede a perfect birth. It is of
sufficient notoriety that the earliest instruments of excellence,
bearing the name of Violin, as well as the earliest players of
eminence, were Italian. The Cremona fiddles of Hieronymus Amati
(to go no farther back) were sent into this breathing world about
two centuries and a half ago; and Baltazarini, the earliest great
player of the genuine Violin on record, is known to have been
imported as a curiosity from Italy, by Catherine de Medicis, in 1577.
It is tolerably clear, too, that, as a court favourite, the Violin began
its career in Italy—its progress, in that capacity, having been, as
Burney observes, from Italy to France, and from France to England.
But the tie of Italian connection may be drawn more closely than
this. Galilei, in his Dialogues (p. 147), states that both the Violin and
the Violoncello were invented by the Italians; and he suggests more
precisely the Neapolitans, as the rightful claimants of this honor. Dr.
Burney, who does not attempt to settle the point, quotes the
passage, to the above effect, from Galilei, and admits his own
inability to confute it. Montaigne, whose travels brought him to
Verona in 1580, has recorded, that there were Violins as well as
organs there, to accompany the mass in the great Church. Corelli’s
Violin, an instrument specially Italian, which afterwards passed into
the possession of Giardini, was made in 1578, and its case was
decorated by the master-hand of Annibale Caracci, probably several
years after the instrument was finished; as Caracci at that date had
numbered but eight of his own years.
Towards the end of the 16th century, the Violin is found indicated in
some Italian scores, thus:—piccoli Violini alla Francese; which
circumstance has been sometimes alleged as rendering it probable,
that the reduction of the old viol or viola to the present dimensions
of the Violin took place in France, rather than in Italy: but the fact
does not seem to offer a sufficient basis for the conjecture, when it
is considered that no instruments of French construction,
corresponding with the Violin in its present form, and of as early a
date as those which can be produced of Italian make, are known to
exist. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that these piccoli Violini,
or little Violins, were not identical with the Violin proper;—although
Mr. Hogarth3 (from whose respectable authority I am rather loth to
differ) quotes the phrase as one tending to the support of the
French claim. The term in question, which occurs, particularly, in
Monteverdi’s Opera of Orfeo, printed at Venice in 1615, seems to me
to imply merely some French modification of the already invented
Italian model—a modification applying to the size, and possibly also
to some minor details in the form.
The French writer, Mersennus, who designates all instruments of the
violin and viol class under the term barbiton, describes one of them,
the least of the tribe, as the lesser barbiton. This latter was a small
violin invented for the use of the dancing-masters of France, and of
such form and dimensions as to be capable of being carried in a
case or sheath in the pocket. It is the origin of the instrument which
in England is called a Kit, and which is now made in the form of a
violin.—Is it too great a stretch of conjecture, to hint, that this may,
possibly, have been the kind of thing intended by the term above
quoted?
That curious enquirer, Mr. Gardiner, in his “Music of Nature,” assigns
to Italy the local origin of the Violin, but without placing the date as
near to exactness as it might have been. He makes it to have been
“about the year 1600.” He might safely have gone thirty or forty
years farther back, at least, notwithstanding that the shape of the
instrument, towards the end of the 16th century, has been
supposed, by Hawkins, to have been rather vague and
undetermined4. The transition from the old shapes to the new had
occurred, though it was as yet far from universal. It is sufficient that
the change had commenced.
Admitting the genuine and perfect violin to be rightfully assignable
to the Italians, it may be of some interest, now, to present a few
more records relating, principally, to the instrument in its imperfect
character, when it bore only that sort of analogy to the true
instrument, that the ‘satyr’ is said to have borne to ‘Hyperion.’
The “Musurgia, seu Praxis Musicæ,” of the Benedictine Monk
Luscinius, published in 1542, represents (coarsely cut in wood) as
the bowed instruments then in use, the rebec, or three-stringed
violin, and the viol di gamba. The instruments of the viol tribe,
however, which are supposed to have been those that led more
immediately to the construction of the true violin, considerably
precede the above period in their date of origin. Violars, or
performers on the viol, whose business it was to accompany the
Troubadours in their singing of the Provençal poetry5, were common
in the 12th century; and, in a treatise on music, written by Jerome
of Westphalia in the 13th century, there is particular mention made
of the instrument known by the name of viol.
Under various modifications of the term fiddle, there are to be found
many very early allusions to an instrument, such as it was, bearing
some resemblance to the violin. Fidle is a Saxon word of
considerable antiquity; and from the old Gothic are traced the
derivations of
1. Middle High German. Videl (noun), Videlœre (noun personal),
Videln (verb, to fiddle), Videl-boge (fiddle bow).
2. Icelandic. Fidla.
3. Danish. Fedel.
Then we have Vedel, Veel, Viool (Dutch); Vedel, Vedele (Flemish),
Fiedel, Fidel, Geige (Modern German).
Fythele, Fithele,—and Fythelers (fiddlers) are alluded to in the Old
English Romances. In the legendary life of St. Christopher, written
about the year 1200, is this passage:—
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Cristofre hym served longe;
The Kynge loved melodye of fithele and of songe.

The poet Lidgate, at the beginning of the 15th century, writes of

Instrumentys that did excelle,
Many moo than I kan telle:
Harpys, Fythales, and eke Rotys, &c.

Chaucer, in his “Canterbury Tales,” says of the Oxford Clerk, that he

was so fond of books and study, as to have loved Aristotle better
Than robes rich, or fidel, or sautrie—

and his Absolon, the Parish-Clerk, a genius of a different cast, and

exquisitely described, is a spruce little fellow, who sang, danced, and
played on the species of fiddle then known. An instrument remotely
allied to the fiddle—the ribible, a diminutive of rebec, a small viol
with three strings—is also alluded to by Chaucer. Referring to a later
period, there is evidence to show that an instrument of the violin
kind was used in England before the dissolution of monasteries, in
the time of our eighth Henry, in the fact that something similar to it
in shape is seen depicted upon a glass window of the chancel of
Dronfield church, in the county of Derby; an edifice which was
erected early in the sixteenth century.
At what period the legitimate violin may have found its way from
Italy into this country, it would, I fear, be very difficult to ascertain
with exactness; but it is easy to suppose that, when once that event
had occurred, the neater shape and superior qualities exhibited by
the new comer, would speedily render him the model for imitation,
and lead to the multiplication of his species here, and to the
displacement of the baser resemblances to him. The true
instrument, however, was for a long while among us, ere its merits
came into just appreciation. Until the period of the Restoration, it
was held, for the most part, in very low esteem, and seldom found
in less humble hands than those of fiddlers at fairs, and such like
itinerant caterers of melody for the populace6. Its grand attribute,
the superior power of expressing almost all that a human voice can
produce, except the articulation of words, was at first so utterly
unknown, that it was not considered a gentleman’s instrument, or
worthy of being admitted into “good company.” The lute7, the harp,
the viol, and theorbo, were in full possession of the public ear, and
the poetic pen; nor has this latter authority ever been thoroughly
propitiated by the later-born child of Melos, whose first screams on
coming into the world may perhaps have irrecoverably alarmed the
sensitive sons of Apollo. Moreover, poetry is ever apt to prefer the
old to the new, and often recoils with distaste from what is modern.
“Though the violin surpasses the lute,” says a recent ingenious
writer, “as much as the musket surpasses the bow and arrow, yet
Cupid has not yet learned to wound his votaries with a bullet, nor
have our poets begun to write odes or stanzas to their violins.”
In the 39th Queen Elizabeth, a statute was passed by which
“Ministrels, wandering abroad,” were included among “rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,” and were adjudged to be punished
as such. “This act,” says Percy, in his Reliques of English Poetry,
“seems to have put an end to the profession.” That writer suggests,
however, that although the character ceased to exist, the appellation
might be continued, and applied to fiddlers, or other common
musicians; and in this sense, he adds, it is used in an ordinance in
the time of Cromwell (1656), wherein it is enacted that if any of the
“persons commonly called Fiddlers or Minstrels shall at any time be
taken playing, fiddling, and making music in any inn, alehouse, or
tavern, or shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring or
intreating any ... to hear them play or make music in any of the
places aforesaid,” they are to be “adjudged and declared to be
rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars8.” By a similar change or
declension, according to Mr. Percy, John of Gaunt’s King of the
Minstrels came, at length, to be called, like the Roi des Violons in
France, King of the Fiddles—it being always to be borne in mind,
nevertheless, that it was only as yet a baser kind of instrument
which brought its professors into such scrapes9.
The term crowd, as well as that of fiddle, was commonly used in
England before the appearance of the perfect Violin, but appears to
have been soon disused (along with the barbarous instrument it
designated) after that period. Butler, in his “Hudibras,” employs both
terms indiscriminately, and seems to find enjoyment in linking them
with mean and ludicrous associations—a tendency which must be
allowed to have been quite in keeping with the feeling of the times
he describes. His motley rabble, whom he puts in the way of the
knight and his squire, were special affecters of the instrument he
delights to dishonour,
And to crack’d fiddle, and hoarse tabor,
In merriment did drudge and labor.

He makes contemptuous allusion, also, to certain persons

That keep their consciences in cases,
As fiddlers do their crowds and bases.

Crowdero, the fiddle-noted agent in the story, is made to cut, on the

whole, a very sorry figure. Thus, as to his instrument, and his
manner of calling it into exercise:
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

testbankbell.com