Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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STRADIVARI STRADIVARI 709
violin-maker's wife, Francesoa Ferabqschi. She
was buried with conspicuous honours in a tomb
situated in the choir of the church of St.
Domenico, and fifteen months after her death
Stradivari consoled himself, becoming united
in August 1699 to Signora Antonia Maria
Zambelli, daughter of Antonia Zambelli, of the
parish of S. Donato. This second marriage was
blessed with five children : one daughter—named
after the first wife—Francesca Maria, bom Sept.
19, 1700 (died Feb. 11, 1720); Giovanni
Battista Giuseppe, bom Nov. 6, 1701 (died July
8, 1702); Giovanni Battista Martino, born
Nov. 11, 1703 (died Nov. 1, 1727) ; Giuseppe,
who became a priest, born Oct. 27, 1704 (died
Dec. 2, 1781) ; Paolo Bartolomeo, born Jan. 26,
1708, who was a cloth-merchant (died Oct.
14, 1776). The last named, together with
Stradivari's first child, Giulia Maria (by his first
wife), were apparently the only members of his
family who married.
Immersed in the absorbing interest of his
work, it may be safely said that the years passed
swiftly over Stradivari's head, so that, notwithstanding
the loss of several of his children, the
thought of purchasing a family vault did not
occur to him untO. eight years before his own
death. It was in 1729 that he is recorded to designs for the minutest details of his art, which
have purchased, from the heirs of Francesco are of great interest. M. Vuillaume, it is said,
Villani, the burial-place and tombstone belonging
to that noble family. The exact locality of these were presented by him to the Mus^e of
also preserved some of Stradivari's moulds, and
this vault has been entirely lost since the total the Paris Conservatoire, whilst the French luthier,
destruction of the church of S. Domenico and its M. Chanot-Chardon, owns a set of small planes
chapel—named after the Blessed Virgin of the said to have belonged to Stradivari.
Rosary—which contained the Villani, afterwards
the Stradivari tomb. No funds for the maker exists, we still have to rely on the verbal
As no genuine portrait of the great Cremona
restoration of this handsome church were avail-
description of Stradivari handed down to us
by PoUedro from his master Pugnani, for an
idea of his personal appearance. According to
M. F^tis (Biog. des Mus.), on whose authority
we have the account, Polledro, formerly first
able, and it gradually fell into such a state of
decay that the city authorities had the building
demolished in 1869, converting the site into the
existing public garden. Here a commemorative
inscription on one of the decorative vases in the
grounds perpetuates the memory of the church
of S. Domenico, but the fact that it was the
last resting-place of the illustrious violin-maker
is not alluded to. The Villani tombstone,
however, . from which the coat -of- arms and
family inscriptions were so imperfectly effaced
that they are still visible under Stradivari's
name, is now preserved in the Municipal
Museum, and the Parish Register of S. Matteo
records that Stradivari's second wife was interred
in the Villani vault on March 4, 1737.
She was the first member of the family to be
buried there, and nine months later she was
followed by her husband, who was laid to rest
on Dec. 19, 1737. The following members of
his family were also interred in the same vault
Omobono Stradivari, June 9, 1742 ;
Francesco
Stradivari, May 13, 1743 ;
Paolo Bartolomeo
Stradivari, Oct. 15, 1776 ;
Giuseppe Antonio
Stradivari, Dec. 3, 1781 ;
Catarina Stradivari
(spinster), June 18, 1784.
Little or nothing is known concerning the
disposition of Stradivari's property after his
death. The census returns reveal that his family
continued to reside in the Piazza Roma house
until 1746. Possibly his sons and daughters
divided their father's possessions amicably among
themselves, and we may presume that the
privilege of using his workshop and tools fell
to the share of Francesco and Omobono, who
survived their father for five and six years respectively.
After the departure of Stradivari's
son Paolo Bartolomeo, with his wife Elena
Templari and their four children, in 1746, the
new tenant, Bergonzi, presumably became the
owner of Stradivari's tools and violin-making
appurtenances ; but during the thirty -nine years
or so which elapsed between Stradivari's death
and the sale of his designs, moulds, etc., by his
descendants to Count Cozio di Salabue, many
of these interesting relics necessarily became
scattered abroad and passed into different hands.
With the exception of his callipers, the great
Cremona maker's tools were not included in
the Count's collection, which now belongs to
the Marchese Dalla Valle in Turin. There are
sixteen moulds for violins, and three for violas,
in this collection, besides various drawings and
violin at the court of 'Turin (died 1822), records
that his master, Pugnani, knew Stradivari during
the latter part of his life, and delighted in
talking about him. He described him as tall
and thin. As a rule his head was covered with
a white woollen cap in the winter, and a white
cotton cap in the summer ; over his clothes he
wore an apron of white leather, and, as he rarely
ceased from work, his costume varied seldom.
M. Fdtis also recounts that Stradivari's untiring
industry and his frugal habits brought him to
an old age of such easy circumstances that his
affluence became a standard of comparison to
the people of Cremona, who adopted the phrase
Bicco come Stradivari.
In the opinion of Messrs. Hill, Stradivari
was undoubtedly anapprentice in Nicolo Amati's
workshop, but they unhesitatingly repudiate
the idea that Stradivari assisted Amati in the
construction of his later instruments, and this
on the grounds that there is no indication of
any such help to be found iu the latter's work.