[Footnote 19: Upon reference to the copy of this document (the correspondence is given in the fourth edition of this work), I find the words used by Paolo Stradivari to his correspondents Anselmi di Briata run, after commenting upon the price offered, "However, to show my desire to please you, and in order that not a single thing belonging to my father be left in Cremona, &c.," having reference, possibly, to some supposed feeling of indifference on the part of the municipal authorities towards the memory of Antonio Stradivari, they not having secured the moulds, patterns, &c.] The contents of the letters of Paolo and Antonio Stradivari junior, which the Marquis Dalla Valle has placed at my disposal, serve to explain the two different accounts above given. We find that the Count had two distinct transactions, directly or indirectly, with the family of Stradivari. In 1775 he purchased the ten instruments made by Antonio which remained out of ninety-one (complete and partly finished) left by the maker at the time of his death in 1737. The payment in connection with this transaction was arranged by the banker Carlo Carli, which gave rise to the inventory upon which M. Fetis based his statement as to the age of Stradivari. In the month of May, 1776, negotiations were entered upon with Paolo Stradivari, relative to the tools, which led to their being sold. During their progress Paolo died, October, 1776, and the business was left for his son Antonio to complete in December, 1776. The copies of the letters written by Paolo and Antonio Stradivari are given in the fourth edition of this work, and the chief part of the matter therein is referred to in the Section, "The Violin and its Votaries."