FIG. 2.--A

fig. 2.--a, b, tartini bows; c, tourte bow.] a very early example of the _cremaillere_ bow (fig. 1) occurs on a carved ivory plate ornamenting the binding of the fine carolingian ms. psalter of lothair (a.d. 825), for some time known as the ellis and white psalter, but now in the library of sir thomas brooke at armitage bridge house. the carved figure of king david, assigned from its characteristic pose and the treatment of the drapery to the 11th century, holds a stringed instrument, a rotta of peculiar shape, which occurs twice in other carolingian mss.[15] of the 9th century, but copied here without understanding, as though it were a lyre with many strings. the artist has added a bow with _cremaillere_ attachment, which is startling if the carving be accurately placed in the 11th century. the earliest representation of a _cremaillere_ bow, with this exception, dates from the 15th century, according to viollet-le-duc, who merely states that it was copied from a painting.[16] fetis (op. cit. p. 117) figures a _cremaillere_ bow which he styles "bassani, 1680." sebastian virdung draws a bow for a _tromba marina_, with the hair and stick bound together with waxed cord. the hair appears to be kept more or less tense by means of a wedge of wood or other material forced in between stick and hair, the latter bulging slightly at this point like the string of an archery bow when the arrow is in position; this contrivance may be due to the fancy of the artist. the invention of a movable nut propelled by a screw is ascribed to the elder tourte (fig. 2); had we not this information on the best authority (vuillaume and fetis), it might be imagined that some of the bows figured by mersenne,[17] e.g. the bass viol bow kl (p. 184), and another klm (p. 192), had a movable nut and screw; the nut is clearly drawn astride the stick as in the modern bow. mersenne explains (p. 178) the construction of the bow, which consists of three parts: the _bois, baton_ or _brin_, the _soye_, and the _demi-roue_ or _hausse_. the term "half-wheel" clearly indicates that the base of the nut was cut round so as to fit round the stick. in the absence of any allusion to such ingenious mechanism as that of screw and nut, we must infer that the drawing is misleading and that the very decided button was only meant for an ornamental finish to the stick. we are informed further that _la soye_ was in reality hairs from the horse or some other animal, of which from 80 to 100 were used for each bow. the up-stroke of the bow was used on the weak beats, 2, 4, 6, 8, and the down-stroke on the strong beats, 1, 3, 5, 7 (p. 185). the same practice prevailed in england in 1667, when christopher simpson wrote the _division viol_. he gives information concerning the construction of the bow in these words: "the viol-bow for division should be stiff but not heavy. the length (betwixt the two places where the hairs are fastened at each end) about seven-and-twenty inches. the nut should be short, the height of it about a finger's breadth or a little more" (p. 2). as soon as corelli (1653-1713) formulated the principles of the technique of the violin, marked modifications in the construction of the bow became noticeable. tartini, who began during the second decade of the 18th century to gauge the capabilities of the bow, introduced further improvements, such as a lighter wood for the stick, a straight contour, and a shorter head, in order to give better equilibrium. the tourtes, father and son, accomplished the rest. after francois tourte, the following makers are the most esteemed: j.b. vuillaume, who was directly inspired by tourte and rendered an inestimable service to violinists by working out on a scientific basis the empirical taper of the tourte stick, which was found in all his bows to conform to strict ratio;[18] dominique peccate, apprenticed to j.b. vuillaume; henry, 1812-1870, who signs his name and "paris" on the stick near the nut; jacques lefleur, 1760-1832; francois lupot, 1774-1837, the first to line the angular cutting of the nut, where it slides along the stick, with a plate of metal; simon, born 1808, who also signs his bows on the stick near the nut; john dodd of richmond, the greatest english bow-maker, who was especially renowned for his violoncello bows, though his violin bows had the defect of being rather short. the violoncello bow is a little shorter than those used for violin and viola, and the head and nut are deeper. the principal models of double-bass bows in vogue at the beginning of the 19th century were the _dragonetti_, maintaining the arch of the medieval bows, and the _bottesini_, shaped and held like the violin bow; the former was held over-hand with the hair inclining towards the bridge, and was adopted by the paris conservatoire under habeneck about 1830; the great artist himself sent over the model from london. illustrations of both bows are given by vidal (_op. cit._ pl. xviii.). messrs w.e. hill & sons probably possess the finest and most representative collection of bows in the world. (k. s.) footnotes: [1] "bow," the forepart or head of a ship, must be distinguished from this word. it is the same word, and pronounced in the same way, as "bough," an arm or limb of a tree, and represents a common teutonic word, seen in o. eng. _bog_, ger. _bug_, shoulder, and is cognate with gr. [greek: paechus], forearm. the sense of "shoulder" of a ship is not found in o. eng. _bog_. but was probably borrowed from dutch or danish. "bow," an inclination of the head or body, though pronounced as "bough," is of the same origin as "bow," to bend. [2] see f.j. fetis, _antoine stradivari_, pp. 120-121 (paris, 1856). [3] fetis, _op. cit._ p. 123. [4] j. ruhlmann, _die geschichte der bogeninstrumente_ (brunswick, 1882), p. 143. [5] fetis, _op. cit._ p. 119. [6] antoine vidal, _les instruments a archet_ (paris, 1876-1878), tome i. p. 269 [7] _de cantu et musica sacra_ (1774), tome ii. pl. xxxii. no. 18; the ms. has since perished by fire. [8] see, for an illustration of the bowed instrument on one of the sides of a byzantine ivory casket, 9th century, in the carrand collection, florence, a. venturi, _gallerie nazionali italiane_, iii. (rome, 1897), plate, p. 263; and _add. ms. 19,352, british museum_, greek psalter, dated 1066. [9] see jean cledat, "le monastere et la necropole de baouit," in _mem. de l'inst. franc. d'archeol. orient. du caire_, vol. xii. (1904), chap. xviii. pl. lxiv. (2); also fernand cabrol, _dict. d'archeol. chretienne, s.v._ "baouit." [10] for an illustration, see sonnerat, _voyage aux indes orientales_ (paris, 1806), vol. i. p. 182. [11] _op. cit._ pp. 4-10. [12] _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 3 and pl. ii. [13] edward heron-allen, _violin-making as it was and is_ (london, 1884), pp. 37-42, figs. 5-10. [14] ms. 774, fol. 30. for an illustration of it see hyacinth abele, _die violine, ihre geschichte und ihr bau_ (neuburg-a-d., 1874), pl. 5, no. 7. [15] see crowd for fig. from the bible of charles le chauve; and also king david in the bible of st paul _extra muros_, rome (photographic facsimile by j.o. westwood, oxford, 1876). [16] see _dictionnaire raisonne du mobilier francais_ (paris, 1871), vol. ii. part iv. pp. 265 d. and 266 note. [17] marin mersenne, _l'harmonie universelle_ (paris, 1636-1637), pp. 184 and 192. [18] vuillaume's diagram and explanation are reproduced by fetis, op. cit. pp. 125-128.