Eighteen sonatas composed by Giovanni Battista Fontana, and published at
Venice in 1641, show a distinct advance in style, and Tomasso Antonio
Vitali, himself a famous violinist, wrote a "Chaconne" of such merit
that it was played by no less a virtuoso than Joachim, at the Monday
popular concerts in London, in 1870, nearly two hundred years after its
composition.

Italy was the home of the violin, of composition for the violin, and of
violin playing, for the first school was the old Italian school, and
from Italy, by means of her celebrated violinists, who travelled and
spread throughout Europe, the other schools were established.

Violin playing grew in favour in Italy, France, Germany, and England at
about the same time, but in England it was many years before the
violinist held a position of any dignity. The fiddle, as it was called,
was regarded by the gentry with profound contempt. Butler, in
"Hudibras," refers to one Jackson, who lost a leg in the service of the
Roundheads, and became a professional "fiddler:"

"A squeaking engine he apply'd
Unto his neck, on northeast side,
Just where the hangman does dispose,
To special friends, the knot or noose;
For 'tis great grace, when statesmen straight
Dispatch a friend, let others wait.

His grisly beard was long and thick,
With which he strung his fiddle-stick;
For he to horse-tail scorned to owe,