tobre 1690 per S.
A. Da Fiorenza." It is interesting to find that the Grand Duke also
possessed a Stradivari Violin, dated 1716, which is in Florence,
together with the instruments above referred to. It is therefore
evident that the belief of the Marquis that Stradivari would receive
further orders from the Grand Duke was realised.

Between the years 1690 and 1700 Stradivari made, together with the
form of instrument just described, that known to connoisseurs as the
"long Strad." We have here quite a differently constructed instrument;
it is less graceful, although there is no absence of the masterly hand
throughout the work. It has received the title of "long Strad" from
its increased length, as the name would imply.[25]

[Footnote 25: The usual length measurements of the various patterns
are as under:--
(1) "Amatise," 13-7/8 inches.
(2) "Long Strad," 14-1/8 (occasionally 14-1/4) inches.
(3) "Grand pattern," 14 to 14-1/16 inches.--EDITORS.]

Fortified with the experience which the variously constructed
instruments referred to had enabled him to gather, he would seem to
have marshalled all his forces in order to enter on an entirely new
campaign, one that should be alike glorious to himself and his art.
That he succeeded in achieving all that he could have desired, my
readers will have an opportunity of judging by the evidence I propose
to offer. It was about the year 1700 when Stradivari entered upon a
new era in his art. All his past labours appear to have been only
measures preliminary to that which he proposed afterwards to
accomplish, and were made for the purpose of testing, to the minutest
degree, the effect of particular modifications in the form and
thickness of his works.

If we stay to consider for a moment the field of research traversed by
Stradivari before entering upon what may be not inaptly named the
golden period of his life, artistically considered, we shall be better
enabled to appreciate his labours.

Starting from the days when he left the workshop of Niccolo Amati, we
find him following implicitly in the footsteps of his master. About
1686 he makes use of the more commendable points belonging to the
works of former years, adding others of great beauty and utility. At
this period he begins to make his originality felt, continuing in this
vein, with but little intermission, down to about the year 1690, when
he again gives forth fresh evidence of his power to create, as shown
in the "lo