[Illustration: THE ‘VASLIN’ VIOLONCELLO BY ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS. DATED 1725.] Gasparo da Salo, as we have already said, was an adept in the choice of wood, and he was fortunate in lighting upon some particularly even-grained pine. In these days his work is looked upon as rough, or, to put it more gently, primitive. The recent researches of Il Cavalieri Livi--the keeper of the Brescian state archives--have, however, proved that this was far from the case in his lifetime. Until the results of the Cavalieri’s investigations were published in the _Nuova Antalogia_ on the 16th August 1891, nothing definite concerning this maker’s life was known. Thanks to the Brescian income-tax returns and other authentic documentary evidence it is now proved that Da Salo’s real name was not Salo at all but Gasparo di Bertolotti, that he rejoiced in a grandfather named Santino di Bertolotti who was a lute-maker at Polpenazze, that his father was one Francesco Bertolotti, a painter familiarly called “Violino” by his friends, and that his son, Gasparo, the future violin-maker, was born at Salo, a small town on Lake Garda, not many miles distant from Brescia. Unfortunately the date of Da Salo’s birth still remains unknown, owing to the loss of the pages from the parish register where it should appear, but the income-tax returns for 1568 state him to be twenty-six years of age at that date, and those for 1588, forty-five, thus locating his birth approximately in the year 1542. It is presumed that he learnt his art from his grandfather first, and later from a Brescian viol-maker of the name of Gerolamo Virchi, who stood sponsor to Gasparo’s son, Francesco. The earliest efforts of the great Brescian master apparently did not find favour with his fellow-countrymen, and, this being so, he became discouraged and contemplated trying his fortunes in France. A certain Father Gabriel saw the gifted man’s dispirited efforts, and also observed his intentions. He was reluctant to see one of his flock go forth to a foreign country, and to prevent such a calamity came forward with a loan of £60. Curiously enough this small sum changed the bent of Da Salo’s life. He remained, and encouraged by the faith of the good priest set to work with such definite aim and earnestness, that as a result he soon established himself in a house with a shop in the _Contrada del Palazzo vecchio_. This event occurred in the year 1568. He paid £20 rent per annum for this establishment, valued his stock of musical instruments at about £60, and styled himself _Magistro di Violini_. In 1579 he exhibited the added title of _Magistro di Cittaris_, and in 1583 called himself _Artefice d’instrumenti musica_. Twenty years after his first establishment in the _Contrada del Palazzo vecchio_, he changed his residence to the _Contrada Cocere_, where he claimed to be the owner of violins finished and unfinished valuing quite £200, and where he had acquired the ostentatious title of