unday). The process culminated in the development of the
             4-stringed violin family around 1550. While it is difficult to identify
             the first to invent the violin, the persons responsible for the perfection
             of its form are more clearly distinguishable. Sunday thus identifies the
             first person to perfect the form of the violin as Andrea Amati. (Sunday).
             In Cremona, Italy during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Amati's
             name together with two others; Stradivari and Guarneri, became known for
             their skills in violin making (Gusset). Their work was the cumulation of
             thousands of artists and musicians before them. Their violin making thus
             represented the best of achievement by artists, crafts, scientists and
             mathematicians whose skills were used in the field (Gusset).
             When the violin came into being during the 16th century, Cremona,
             Brescia and Venice in northern Italy were centers particularly of stringed
             instrument making. Amati's oldest surviving instruments are said to be
             commissioned by Charles IX of France, and are highly decorated by paintings
             and gilded scenes (Gusset). Many of the set were destroyed during the
             French revolution, but eight have survived this. Amati's sons, Antonio and
             Girolamo, also known as the Brothers Amati, carried on his Cremonese
             tradition. Having been ravaged by the 1628 famine and the subsequent
             plague, Amati's son Nicolo survived his brothers in order to carry on
             making violins (Gusset). He continued to make what was considered of the
             most beautiful violins ever made, giving him quite the reputation as
             excellent craftsman. He left his legacy to the world by training pupils
             such as Francesco Rugeri and Andrea Guarneri, who was to be the patriarch
             of the Guarneri family, also prominent in violin making. Nicolo also
             trained his own son, Girolamo II, and is said to be a likely tutor of the
             There are some pertinent differences betwee...