we do the wealth of documentary evidence referencing Amati's violin making that we have for Gasparo da Salò. Eleven documents are known to exist referencing Amati, compared with slightly less than a hundred for da Salò. Of the eleven, only one document clearly mentions the work of Amati, and it is comparatively late, dating from 1576, eight years after the document referenced above, and it states simply: "l'arte sua è de far strumenti da sonar” ("his art is of making instruments to play"). Conspicuously absent is any mention of the acclaimed Amati violin, which seems to have been manufactured from the early 1560s, apparently with great success. From 1581 and until 1588, the various written references to Gasparo da Salò as a master violin maker are further augmented with various Latin titles such as "artefici (or artifex) instrumentorum musicorum” (maker of musical instruments) and the Italian title “artefice d'istrumenti musici” (maker of musical instruments) and “instrumenti de musicha” (Instruments of music) in order to emphasize his mastery of the construction of all kinds of instruments. In 1585, he resumed use of the old tradition title of "master of violins," which would continue to be his specialty from 1591 until his death, with the exception of a brief period in February and March 1597 wherein he is referred to as "magister a citharis," the citharis being a special and sought after instrument also known as the cetra or cetera. An archival document from 1588, a surviving tax record, clearly indicates the export of Gasparo da Salò's work to France. About eighty of Gasparo da Salò's instruments are known to have survived to the present day, and they stand confidently among the works of Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Amati, Jacob Stainer, and his own pupil Giovanni Paolo Maggini as unique examples of the highest mastery attained in Brescian or indeed European instrument manufacture of the golden era of violin making, possessing exceptional tonal characteristics. Owing to their exceptional tone and beauty, Gasparo da Salò's patterns are frequently emulated in exacting modern commercial reproductions. These modern tributes to Gasparo da Salò are themselves merely the latest arrivals in what has become a long and distinguished tradition of copying and emulating the master's work. Charles Beare's analysis of the best works of Guarneri del Gesu's latest period, including the famous Vieuxtemps Guarneri of 1741, seems to demonstrate that Guarneri very strictly copied the arching used by