Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Friday 31 October 2014

New Encyclopedia for String Instruments - The Brompton's Book of Violin and Bow Makers

The Whittaker Library was proud to accept the gift of a copy of John Dilworth's new book,The Brompton's Book of Violin and Bow Makers.  

You'll find the book on our reference shelves here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  It's an astonishing 683 page alphabetical listing of violin and bow makers - a lifetime's work of recording details from individual instruments, and data from an extensive bibliography.  The author, with the background of 'forty years at the bench and in the auction viewing rooms', explains in his foreword that Henley's  now historic Universal Dictionary of Violin and Bow Makers (1973) has long been a source of fascination for him, and the present volume is to be regarded as an extension, an update and in some cases a correction of entries or an alternative viewpoint to commentary in that book.

Additional information can be sourced through an appendix of instrument makers, backing up the information in this new dictionary by taking the reader to books which deal with their subjects in greater depth, and this is followed by a 'Select Bibliography of Sources and Further Reading'.  More about the book can be read at this link, HERE.

And There's More!

http://www.amati.com/maker-archive.html



There is also a website with a huge biographical resource of violin and bow makers (14,000 and counting) - most of the information is based on The Brompton's Book of Violin and Bow Makers.  Visit the Amati.com Maker Archive HERE.




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