The painters are not quite so strongly represented as the men of letters
and science, the two principal names being those of _Lionardo_ (O.G.
Leonhard) and of _Guido_. Guido is one of the Frankish forms to which I
have before alluded, and is formed by the prefix of _g_ to the name Wido
or Wito,--it was not an uncommon name among the Old Franks, and is found
at present among the French as _Videau, Viteau_, and _Guidé_. The
ill-omened name of the assassin _Guiteau_ I take to be from the same
origin, and to be of French extraction. So also may be our own name
_Widow_, which corresponds with a Wido of about the twelfth or
thirteenth century in the _Liber Vitæ_. There is another Italian name,
_Guidubaldi_, that of a Duke of Urbino, in the middle ages, formed on
the same stem with the addition of _bald_, bold, and corresponding with
a Frankish Guidobald. The word concerned seems to be most probably Goth.
_vidus_, O.H.G. _witu_, wood, used in a poetical sense for weapon.[51]
Other names of painters are _Baldi_ (O.G. Baldo), _Baldovin_(_etti_)
(O.G. Baldwin), _Anselmi_ (O.G. Anshelm), _Ansuini_ (O.G. Answin),
_Aldighiero_ (O.G. Aldegar), _Algardi_ (O.G. Alagart), _Alberti_ (O.G.
Albert for Adalbert), _Alloisi_ (O.G. Alois = Alwis), _Ghiberti_ (O.G.
Gibert), _Gherardini_ (O.G. Gerard), _Gennari_ (O.G. Genear),
_Ghirlandaio_ (O.G. Gerland), _Tibaldi_ (O.G. Tiebald for Theudobald).
Also _Guardi_, another of the Frankish forms before referred to,
representing an O.G. Wardi, and the same name as Eng. _Ward_, for which
we find a corresponding A.S. Weard.
Of those eminent in the sister art of music, we have _Castoldi_ (O.G.
Castald for Castwald), and _Frescobaldi_. This last name does not figure
in Foerstemann's list, but we can hardly doubt its German origin, _bald_
being a typical German ending, while Fresc, as a Teutonic name, is found
in the Fresc(ingas), early Saxon settlers in England, another instance
of the common tie which binds all Teutonic names together. We may add to
the list, as the name of a living composer, _Guglielmo_ = Wilhelm or
William. Among those who were accessory to music as instrument-makers,
we have _Stradivarius_ and _Guarnerius_ (O.G. Guarner for Warinhar)
corresponding with our own names _Warriner_ and _Warner_, and present
French names _Ouarnier_ and _Guernier_. It will not be out of keeping
with what we should expect if we find the German element develop itself
in the conception rather than in the execution of music, and in the
combination of science and patience which led to the success of the old
instrument-makers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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