Mea Culpa

 (November 2017)

Mea Culpa.

As said earlier, everything presented so far has been in its nature a hypothesis, reaching toward an understanding of classical Italian violin family design and making methods.   I started looking seriously at violin making around 2009, and this research began in earnest two years later.   It’s now been about a year since I started making the results public.  The research has of course continued, and the ideas have developed and changed to some degree.  

Constructing a Bergonzi violin mold from scratch

Here's a very detailed example of classical violin geometry in application.   Here, the shapes are all created by simple compass arcs and straight lines.  And every part is sized with simple ratios from other parts. 

It's a rather dense presentation to wade through.  But it shows the complete design process behind a violin form by Stradivari's apprentice Bergonzi.   This gives the shape for a form that Bergonzi cut in a walnut board, approximately 14mm thick.  Using this inner form, Bergonzi bent the ribs for many of his wonderful violins.