Stradivari’s apprenticeship is still not completely understood today. Tradition has it that he was a pupil of Nicola Amati, the great violin maker who preceded him in musical instruments production ...in the city of Cremona. However, no documents proving Stradivari’s presence in Nicola Amati's workshop can be found. In this paper, we present a dendrochronological analysis of Stradivari’s harp, the only surviving portable diatonic harp, now in the possession of the Museum of the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, Naples. The harp bears the inscription “Ant:° Stradivarivs Cremonen.sF. 1681” engraved on the column. Dendrochronological analysis of the soundboard revealed high correlation values (TBP > 16) between the tree ring sequence of the harp and that from a Nicola Amati cello made in 1679, suggesting that the wood of the two soundboards comes from the same tree trunk. The dendrochronological analysis of the harp offers new evidence of Stradivari’s possible apprenticeship and has stimulated reflection on the wood trade for making musical instruments during the golden age of Italian classical violin making (16th–18th centuries).
•The only harp made by Stradivari that has come down to us, dated 1681, has been dated by dendrochronology to the year 1624, terminus post quem.•The soundboard’s wood comes from the same tree trunk of the the bass side of a cello attributed to Nicola Amati.•The trade in timber for musical instruments in the classical period of Italian violin making has been analysed and discussed.•This research help to shed light on Stradivari's possible apprenticeship to Nicola Amati, as tradition dictates.
Amati Drescher, Thomas
MGG Online,
11/2016
Reference
1. Andrea (I) , * ca. 1500–1505 in Cremona, † begraben 24. Dez. 1577 ebd.Amati, Andrea (I)Andrea (I) Amati Er ist der erste Vertreter des Cremoneser Geigenbaus und der früheste namentlich bekannte ...Her...
Stradivari harp tree-ring data Bernabei, Mauro; Bontadi, Jarno; Sisto, Luigi
Data in brief,
08/2022, Volume:
43
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Three tree ring sequences were collected on the soundboard of the Stradivari harp. Due to the presence of the strings in the centre of the harp soundboard, the sampling of the tree ring widths was ...focused separately on the right side (RX), the central (CX) and the left side (LX). Tree ring measurements were carried out by using the Video Time Table (VTT), an instrument that combines a portable measuring device and a digital, high-resolution video camera. The VTT allowed non-invasive measurements of the tree rings to be made in situ and to immediately verify the quality of the sampling. The growth rings of the central portion were sampled using a high-resolution camera, which made it possible to bypass the barrier formed by the neck and strings. The consequent parallax and focus problems were overcome by taking many photographs from different angles. The measurements on the photographs were made with the CooRecorder program. The dendrochronological data were acquired with the PAST4 program and graphically processed and analysed with the PAST4 and 5 programs.
This paper examines the ways in which identity in the later Middle Ages could be displayed through the means that paradoxically seem to dissolve the very idea of identity – the image of the ...decomposed body. In the following pages it is argued that the transi or cadaver monuments were considered to represent the true portraits of deceased individuals, emphasizing that those buried beneath were experiencing purgatorial pains. Special attention is devoted to the mechanisms which were employed in order for the transis to be fashioned as individual portraits. Even though cadaver monuments were not part of the experience of Italian art of Trecento and Quattrocento, it is argued that, albeit all the differences from its northern counterparts, the tomb slab of Antonio Amati should be considered as a true transi tomb as well as the true portrait of the deceased.
A key issue in understanding artefacts from the past is the loss of readability of the signs they may have borne. The two 16th-century musical instruments studied here—rare Italian violins made by ...Andrea Amati (
c.
1505-1577) in Cremona—bear remains of painted heraldic emblems, which are barely legible and thus remained undeciphered until today. They are exemplary representatives of this research question, indeed combining various types of losses, which are widely encountered on archaeological artefacts: they are now incomplete (parts are missing, surfaces are abraded) and the paint matter itself, of which the signs are made, has altered. In this study, the complete original outlines and geometrical subdivisions of the shields are deduced from calculations based on the conventional heraldic construction practices of the times. Also, in situ elemental imaging of the shield areas—here using scanning X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy— brings two types of information: (i) the nature of pigments, allowing to deduce the initial colours of the paints not discernable to the eye, whether abraded or discoloured; (ii) the spatial distribution of these pigments and colours inside the shield. This multi-approach method leads to the unprecedented revelation of a combination of symbols (tinctures of fields, emblematic ornaments, and their relative spatial distribution), all having meanings in heraldic language. The reconstructed coats of arms appear to be pointing to a very specific nine-year period (1559–1568) of the life of the queen Elisabeth (Isabel) of Valois, spouse of Philip II of Spain. We suggest that this approach, combining an imaging spectroscopic technique and a geometrical study of remaining decors, here providing new insights into the musical history at the Court of Spain, may be used to enhance the readability of a wide range of writings, signs and symbols on artefacts from the past.
Until now, the question of geometrical construction (or: reconstruction) of the violin form has been the subject of numerous hypotheses. Without doubt, instruments were designed using the tools of ...that period, namely, a ruler and a compass and applying the ideas of Pythagoras or Vitruv, to achieve a perfectly balanced instrument. In particular, the question of a “standard unit” is of importance. Previous research mostly dealt in geometrical construction and not in a “standard unit”. Based on our recent discoveries of tools and drawings, we suggest that instruments of the Brescian and Cremonese schools might have used a standard length unit that could have been the Roman oncia. This unit was applied to the Stradivari instruments, later to all Cremonese violins. But initially, the relationship between the proportions did not emerge, until a completely, new construction system, using concentrical circles, was applied. Consequently, all necessary markers for the construction and the radii of the outline can now easily be detected. The construction might be also applicable to violas, violoncellos and even the smaller violins, too. Also the violin scrolls were successfully analyzed.
This book compares different psychoanalytic thinking and models - from a rigorously Freudian perspective - on three concepts of great theoretical and clinical importance: 'Language', 'Symbolization', ...and 'Psychoses' . These concepts are significantly interwoven with each other both in personal development as well as in the atypical and individual forms of pathology. The authors have endeavoured to reply to one of the foremost queries that has occupied Jacqueline Amati Mehler's thinking: whether and how the acquisitions of modern psychoanalysis have brought about changes in our criteria of analysability; whether our increased knowledge has lead to a greater therapeutic capacity, as she believes; and whether, as a consequence, we must endorse the so-called flexibility of the setting and the classical methods, as she does not believe.
The ancient Jewish law took a strict approach to medical relationships between Jews and non-Jews. The current study deals with the attitude of Amatus Lusitanus (1511–1568), a notable Portuguese ...Jewish physician towards treating gentiles. The Physician’s Oath of Lusitanus emphasises that as a doctor he treated people from varied faiths and socio-economic status. Lusitanus treated many non-Jews. For instance, he received an invitation from the municipality of Ragusa to serve as the town physician and he accepted this mission. In Anconare, he was called upon to treat Jacoba del Monte, sister of Pope Julius III, and he also prescribed for Julius himself. Amatus Lusitanus was forced to leave his country because of the Portuguese inquisition and wandered in many countries. Despite the hostile religious attitude of his close surroundings, he did not retaliate against his patients and provided medical treatment indiscriminately.
Gravitec Instruments is continuing work on a novel direct magnetic gradiometer for use in mobile and static mineral surveying. The compact, robust design lends itself to airborne and borehole ...deployment and could be used in other applications where space and power are strictly limited. Results from recent testing will be discussed.
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