The instruments made by Stradivari were for the most part distributed throughout the Courts and noble houses of Europe. We have records of several concertos of instruments made by him upon the commission of the Courts of Spain, Modena, Tuscany, Poland, and others, from the time when he began to acquire a European reputation. Among these was the great concerto presented by the Cremonese Nobleman, the Marchese Bartolommeo Ariberti, to the Court of Tuscany, and containing that marvellous instrument which, after being long hidden from the world, came to light in recent times and excited so much admiration two years ago, when it was first exhibited in this country. There were, however, undoubtedly many fine specimens of his work remaining in their maker’s hands at the time of his death, and these passed into the possession of his family. Fortunately, from a manuscript which remained in the possession of an enthusiastic Cremonese chronicler, Vincenzo Lancetti, we learn the fate of some of the instruments inherited by the great maker’s sons. Lancetti was an active man of letters, and the author of important biographical works, including “Cremonese Worthies,” “A Dictionary of Pseudonyms,” “A Dictionary of the Poets Laureate of every Nation,” and numerous other books, published between 1796 and 1830, when he was in Milan as Director of the Archives of the War Office. In 1823, having in contemplation a biographical memoir of the violin makers of his native town, he enlisted the assistance of the wealthy amateur and great connoisseur, Count Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont.) The work unhappily was never completed, but Count Salabue’s original sketch for the memoir (in the hand of his amanuensis, here partly reproduced in fac-simile) affords us some valuable information on the subject. From this memorandum, dated “Milan, January, 1823,” we learn that, in addition to the large number of Stradivari’s violins scattered throughout Europe, ninety-one were in his possession at the time of his death. In 1775 ten of these instruments were still in the hands of his son Paolo, the youngest child of his second marriage, who sold them in that year, together with two choice instruments by Francesco Stradivari (the second son), and all the forms, models, and tools left by their father, to the Count Salabue, whose collection has become so famous in the annals of the Cremona School.