Andrew Ryan’s article ‘Straight talking’ (Making Matters, September 2022) reveals a ‘mystery’ of existing straight lines in the archings of Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gesú’ instruments. I’d like to suggest that they are simply the result of a working method. Every violin arch contains straight lines owing to its topographical complexity. The Cremonese masters were very particular about the arching, since it’s where the magic lies, and they went to great effort to perfect it as much as possible. Hence, it’s no wonder that there are similar features in the archings by two of the greatest masters of the Cremonese tradition.
I also want to address the next theme; the ‘longitudinal arch structure’ (LAS). Count Cozio di Salabue knew quite a bit about what the old Cremonese makers did. He explained that the internal curves should be equal in both belly and back, and the thickness should be on the outside. This explains why the LAS is similar (same internal curves) and why the extended straight lines either meet or cross over each other, because the central thicknesses differ between the belly and back. The straight lines and LAS are only meaningful from an inside-first perspective. From this viewpoint, there’s no mystery.