Violin, Brescian school, ca. 1630
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NMM 3363. Violin, Brescian school, ca. 1630. Ex coll.: Bisiach, Milan. Witten-Rawlins Collection, 1984.
Front and Back of Body
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Top: three-piece, quarter-cut spruce: fine, wavy grain; wing on lower treble bout; knot in upper treble bout; filled flaw in top, upper treble edge, under purfling; one pin and two pin holes through top into bottom block; pins through top into upper corner blocks
Back: two-piece, quarter-cut maple: faint, medium curl descending from center joint; two filled pin holes through back into top block, one on each side of joint; three pin holes through button into neck heel, one on each side of joint and one through joint, later
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: faint, medium curl, angled to right on bass side, angled to left on treble side
Arching: high in center bouts
Purfling: wide; set in far from edge
Varnish: medium orange-brown
Fingerboard: spruce veneered with ebony; underside near end stained black; wedge-shaped; notch at neck position
Tailpiece: maple veneered with ebony; edges stained black
Tailgut: red gut
Saddle: ivory; flush with top
Endpin: zizyphus; decoratively turned rings
Linings: spruce; thick
Corner blocks: spruce; small
Top block: willow or poplar; later
Bottom block: willow or poplar
Bassbar: later
Other: burn mark on inside of top
Soundholes
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F-holes: inner notches above outer notches; undercut; inside edges stained brown
Pegbox and Scroll Views
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Nut: ivory
Pegs: four zizyphus
Neck Heel
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Head and neck: maple: very faint, narrow curl; second scroll turn strongly flared; reshaped and re-angled; top originally set into notch in neck
Measurements
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Total violin length: 589 mm
Stop length: 195 mm
Vibrating string length: 325 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 119.7 mm (original); 127.3 (current)
Top length: 354 mm
Top upper bout width: 159 mm
Top center bout width: 108.6 mm
Top lower bout width: 202 mm
Back length: 356 mm
Back upper bout width: 158.7 mm
Back center bout width: 109.3 mm
Back lower bout width: 201 mm
Upper rib height: 27.5-28.5 mm
Center rib height: 27.6-28.4 mm
Lower rib height: 27.2-28.3 mm
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Go to Related Checklists
Checklist of Bowed
Stringed Instruments Made Before 1800
Checklist of 16th- and 17th-Century Instruments
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
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