The art of playing the Violin, and the composition of music for this instrument, continued during the whole of the eighteenth century to progress rapidly. At the commencement of this century in almost every town of Italy, a distinguished violinist was met with. The genius of Corelli roused that of every artist. At Pisa, Costantino Clari, equally remarkable as composer and executant; at Florence, Francesco Veracini; at Bologna, Geronimo Laurenti; at Modena, Antonio Vitali; at Massa di Carrara, Cosmo Perelli and Francesco Ciampi; at Lucca, Lombardi; at Cremona, Visconti, whose counsels greatly aided Stradiuari in the manufacture of his instruments; at Pistoia, Giacopino; at Naples, Michaele Mascitti. Others, as Matteo Alberti, Tommaso Albinoni, Carlo Tessarini, and Antonio Vivaldi, all pupils of Corelli, were in their day not only _virtuosi_ of the first order, but admirable writers of instrumental music. Vivaldi was one of those predestined artists who impress upon the art of their time a new direction. To him may be attributed the first improvement of the concerto; for the _concerto grosso_ of Corelli is a work in which all the parts agree together, and each in turn partakes of its interest. “L’Estro Armonico” of Vivaldi, composed of twelve concertos for four Violins, two Viols, Violoncello, and Thorough-Bass for the Organ, follows this model; but in his sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth work, the genius of the author takes another flight, and although there is no division of _solo_ and _tutti_, the principal Violin part governs all the rest. The melodies of Vivaldi bear a modern complexion that Somis and Geminiani imitated.