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A Stradivarius is a stringed instrument built by members of the Stradivari family, especially by Antonio Stradivari.

Antonio Stradivari was born in Italy in 1644. He was supposedly a disciple of Nicolo Amati, of the Amati family of violin makers of Cremona. Antonio set up business for himself in 1680, though his early violins are generally considered inferior to those made between 1698 and 1720. While many of his techniques are still not fully understood by modern science, it is known for sure that the wood used included spruce for the harmonic top, willow for the internal parts and maple for the back, strip and neck, and that the wood was treated with several types of minerals, including potassium borate (borax), sodium and potassium silicate, and bianca (a varnish composed of Arabic gum, honey and egg white).

A Stradivarius made in the 1680s or during Stradivari's Brescian period from 1690-1700, could be worth several hundred thousand dollars or more at today's prices in auction. If made during Stradivari's "golden period" from 1700 to 1720, depending on condition, the instrument can be worth several million. They rarely come up for sale and the highest price paid for a Stradivarius (or any musical instrument) at public auction was The Hammer, made in 1707, which sold for US $3,544,000 on May 16, 2006. Private sales of Stradivari instruments have exceeded this price.^[1][2] The world's only complete set of Stradivarius instruments (string quintet) belongs to the Spanish Government and consists of two violins, two cellos, and a viola. They are exhibited in the Music Museum at the Palacio Real de Madrid. Another significant assemblage is the York Gate Collections of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Many people will find violins labeled or branded as "Stradivarius", and believe them to be genuine. It is believed that there are fewer than 700 genuine extant instruments, very few of which are unaccounted for.

The fame of Stradivari's violins is not a modern phenomenon: the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have owned a Stradivarius with a description of how he purchased the instrument for fifty-five English shillings in the story, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box. Another famous story is about Duport Stradivarius which is said to have the spur marks from the boots of Emperor Napoléon I of France when he tried his hand at playing it. They also played an important role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights and have appeared in other works of fiction such as Detective Conan.

One aspect of Stradivari's approach is illustrated in the BBC TV series Lovejoy, in the episode "Second Fiddle". It is noted that one would expect the 'f'-holes in the front of a violin to be symmetrical yet, in Stradivaria, they are often slightly offset. This is put down to him being less of a perfectionist than tradition would credit but, if true, may express a preference for an aural aesthetic over a visual.

The reputation of the Stradivarius is such that its name is frequently invoked as a standard of excellence in other unrelated fields (such as ships and cars); for example, the Bath Iron Works' unofficial motto is "A Bath boat is the Stradivarius of destroyers!".

In 1924, The Vincent Bach Corporation began releasing a line of trumpets. Due to their amazing quality, people started calling them Stradivarius Trumpets, in honor of the strings of the same name.

Contents 1 Theories and reproduction attempts 2 Stradivari Instruments 2.1 Violins 2.2 Violas 2.3 Cellos 2.4 Guitars 2.5 Harps 2.6 Mandolins 3 References 4 External links

These instruments are famous for the quality of their sound. There have been many failed attempts to explain and reproduce the sound quality. One idea was that Stradivari used wood from an old cathedral to build his instruments, but tree-ring dating has shown this to be false.

Another theory is the idea that very, very old wood from the "little ice age" was used to construct Stradivari's instruments. This theory bases itself upon the high density of this wood; some consider it 'ideal' for making stringed instruments. Trees that grew during this freezing period contained tree rings which were closer together and denser than would be produced in more temperate conditions.^[3]

A National Geographic article provided further basis for the "ice age theory", simply by examining Stradivari's instruments and noticing that many of them had very dense rings in the wood.^[4] Some believe that a special wood glue was used in Stradivari's instruments, partly accounting for the high quality of the sound.

While the sound of Stradivari's instruments still has not been fully explained by modern research tools, devices such as the scanning laser vibrometer are aiding researchers in testing the theory that the careful shaping of belly and back plate, in order to "tune" their resonant frequencies, may be an important factor.^[5]

It was reported in late March 2001 that Joseph Nagyvary, a biochemist at Texas A&M University, succeeded in making a violin somewhere near the quality of a Stradivarius by leaving the wood in sea water for a period of time.^[6] Due to lack of land space in Venice, in former times, imported wood was often stored in water in the Venice Lagoon, where a type of rotting affected it slightly. He managed to get hold of some wood shavings from a Stradivarius violin, and under a microscope he found that in that wood the natural filter plates in the pores between the tracheids had disappeared. He also, reportedly, treated the wood with borax.

By late 2003, Nagyvary had refined his techniques and produced a violin that was tested in a duel between it and a top-tier Stradivarius.^[7] Both violins were played in each of four selections of music. World-class violinist Dalibor Karvay performed behind a screen to an audience of 600 (including 160 trained musicians and 303 regular concert attendees). This was the first public comparison of a great Stradivari with a new violin in front of a large audience. The audience cast ballots for the violins' tone qualities and projection. The results indicated that Nagyvary's instrument surpassed the Stradivarius by a small margin in each category.

Sobriquet	Year	Provenance	Notes
ex-Back	1666	Royal Academy of Music	Currently displayed as part of Royal Academy's York Gate Collection
Dubois	1667	Canimex Foundation	on loan to Alexandre Dacosta [8]
Aranyi	1667	Eric Franklyn Geibel (collector);	sold at Sotheby's London, 12 November 1986 [9]
ex-Captain Saville	1667	Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume; Captain Saville (1901-1907)
Amatese	1668		Though listed in many reference books as one of Stradivari's earliest instruments, the modern consensus is that it is not a Stradivari; it was sold Sotheby's New York 3 February 1982 as "an interesting violin." [10]
Oistrakh	1671	David Oistrakh	missing: stolen in 1996 [11]
Sellière	1672	Charles IV of Spain;
Spanish	1677	Finnish Cultural Foundation	on loan to Elina Vähälä [12]
Hellier	1679	Sir Samuel Hellier	Smithsonian Institution
Paganini-Desaint	1680	Nippon Music Foundation [13]	this violin along with the Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue violin of 1727, the Paganini-Mendelssohn viola 1731, and Paganini-Ladenburg cello of 1731, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet
Fleming	1681	Stradivari Society	on loan to Cecily Ward [14]
Chanot-Chardon	1681	Timothy Baker; Joshua Bell	Shaped like a guitar
Bucher	1683
Cipriani Potter	1683
Cobbett; ex-Holloway	1683
ex-Elphinstone	1684	Guarneri House	Currently for sale
ex-Arma Senkrah	1685
ex-Castelbarco	1685
Goddard	1686	Owned by Miss Goddard[15]	It is currently owned by Antonio Fortunato (Montrose, Scotland)[15]
Ole Bull	1687	Ole Bull (1844); Dr. Herbert Axelrod (1985-1997)	Donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 1997 by Axelrod
Mercur-Avery	1687		on loan to Jonathan Carney, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2002
Auer	1689	Stradivari Society	on loan to Vadim Gluzman [14]
Arditi	1689	Dextra musica AS, Norway	on loan to Elise Båtnes, concertmaster, Oslo Philharmonic
Baumgartner	1689	Canada Council for the Arts	[16]
Bingham	1690
Bennett	1692	Winterthur-Versicherungen	on loan to Hanna Weinmeister
Falmouth	1692		on loan to Leonidas Kavakos
Gould	1693	George Gould Metropolitan Museum of Art	bequethed by Gould to the Metropolitan Museum in 1955[17]
Baillot-Pommerau	1694
Ruston	1694	Royal Academy of Music	on loan to Clio Gould[18]
Fetzer	1695	Stradivari Society	on loan to Ruggero Allifranchini [14]
Cabriac	1698
Baron Knoop	1698		one of eleven Stradivari violins associated with Baron Johann Knoop
Joachim	1698	Royal Academy of Music
Duc de Camposelice	1699
Lady Tennant	1699		on loan to Yang Liu; sold at Christie's auction US$2.032 million, April 2005 [19]
Longuet	1699
Countess Polignac	1699		on loan to Gil Shaham.
Castelbarco	1699
Kustendyke	1699	Royal Academy of Music
Crespi	1699	Royal Academy of Music
Cristiani	1700
Dragonetti	1700	Nippon Music Foundation
Jupiter	1700	Giovanni Battista Viotti
Taft; ex-Emil Heermann	1700	Canada Council for the Arts	on loan to Jessica Linnebach [16]
Dushkin	1701		on loan to Dennis Kim, concertmaster, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Markees	1701	Music Chamber	on loan to Leung Kin-fung
Irish	1702	OKO Bank, Finland	on loan to Réka Szilvay
Conte di Fontana; ex-Oistrach	1702	David Oistrakh (1953-1963); Riccardo Brengola; Massimo Quarta	Oistrakh's first violin
Lukens-Edler Voicu	1702	Romanian state	on loan to the Ion Voicu foundation; ownership disputed between the state of Romania and the "Ion Voicu" foundation.
King Maximilian Joseph	1702	Stradivari Society	on loan to Berent Korfker [14]
Lyall	1702	Stradivari Society	on loan to Stefan Milenkovich [14]
La Rouse Boughton	1703	Österreichische Nationalbank [20]	on loan to Boris Kuschnir of the Kopelman Quartet
Lord Newlands	1702	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Toru Yasunaga
Allegretti	1703
Alsager	1703
Lady Harmsworth	1703	Paul Bartel, Cincinnati, OH
Emiliani	1703	Anne-Sophie Mutter
Betts	1704	U.S. Library of Congress
Sleeping Beauty	1704	L-Bank Baden-Wurttemberg	On loan to Isabelle Faust. One of the few Stradivari violins to have retained original neck.
ex-Marsick; ex-Oistrach	1705	David Oistrach	acquired in trade by Oistrach for the 1702 Conte di Fontana
ex-Brüstlein	1707	Österreichische Nationalbank[21]
La Cathédrale	1707	Stradivari Society	on loan to Tamaki Kawakubo [14]
Hammer	1707	Christian Hammer (collector)	on loan to Kyoko Takezawa; sold at Christie's New York on 16 May 2006 for a record US$3,544,000 (€2,765,080) after five minutes of bidding. [1][2]
Burstein Bagshawe	1708	Stradivari Society	on loan to Janice Martin [14]
Huggins	1708	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Sergey Khachatryan [22]
Ruby	1708	Stradivari Society	on loan to Leila Josefowicz and Vadim Repin [14]
Berlin Hochschule	1709
Hammerle; ex-Adler	1709	Österreichische Nationalbank	on loan to Werner Hink
Ernst	1709		on loan to Zsigmondy Dénes through 2003
Engleman	1709	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Lisa Batiashvili
Viotti; ex-Bruce	1709	Royal Academy of Music	purchased in 2005 for GB£3.5 million
Marie Hall	1709	Giovanni Battista Viotti; The Chi-Mei Collection	named after violinist, Marie Hall
ex-Kempner	1709		on loan to Soovin Kim
Camposelice	1710	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Kyoko Takezawa
Lord Dunn-Raven	1710	Anne-Sophie Mutter
ex-Roederer	1710		on loan to David Grimal.
ex-Vieuxtemps	1710		on loan to Samuel Magad, concertmaster, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Earl of Plymouth; Kreisler	1711	Los Angeles Philharmonic[23]	In 1925, found in store room on the estate of the Earl of Plymouth (along with "The Messiah" and "Alard" violins). Purchased by Fritz Kreisler in 1928 and subsequently sold by him in 1946 [24]
Liegnitz	1711
Le Brun	1712	Niccolò Paganini Charles LeBrun Otto Senn	Sold at Sotheby's auction November 13, 2001
Karpilowsky	1712	Harry Solloway	missing: stolen in 1953 from Solloway's residence in Los Angeles
Boissier	1713
Gibson; ex-Huberman	1713	Bronislaw Huberman; Joshua Bell	stolen twice before Bell's acquisition
Lady Ley	1713	Stradivarius family	now bought by Jue Yao - chinese violinist
Dolphin; Delfino	1714	Jascha Heifetz; Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Akiko Suwanai
Soil	1714	Itzhak Perlman
ex-Berou; ex-Thibaud	1714
Le Maurien	1714		missing: stolen 2002 [25]
Leonora Jackson	1714
Sinsheimer; General Kyd; Perlman	1714	Itzhak Perlman David L. Fulton
Smith-Quersin	1714	Österreichische Nationalbank	on loan to Rainer Honeck
Alard-Baron Knoop	1715
Baron Knoop; ex-Bevan	1715
ex-Bazzini	1715
Cremonese; ex-Harold Joachim	1715	Municipality of Cremona
Joachim	1715	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Sayaka Shoji
Lipinski	1715		missing: stolen in 1962
ex-Marsick	1715		on loan to James Ehnes
Titian	1715	Jacob Lynam
Cessole	1716
Berthier	1716
Booth	1716	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Shunsuke Sato; formerly loaned to Arabella Steinbacher; formerly loaned to Julia Fischer
Colossus	1716		missing: stolen 1998 [25]
Monasterio	1716		Cyrus Forough
Provigny	1716
Messiah-Salabue	1716	Ashmolean Museum Oxford	on exhibit at the Oxford Ashmolean Museum
ex-Windsor-Weinstein; Fite	1716	Canada Council for the Arts	on loan to Jean-Sébastien Roy [16]
Baron Wittgenstein	1716		on loan to Mincio Mincev
Gariel	1717
ex-Wieniawski	1717
Kochanski	1717	Pierre Amoyal	reported stolen in 1987 but was found 4 years later[26]
Sasserno	1717	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Viviane Hagner
Viotti; ex-Rosé	1718	Giovanni Battista Viotti; Österreichische Nationalbank	on loan to Volkhard Steude
Firebird; ex-Saint Exupéry	1718	Salvatore Accardo	Its name is taken from the colouration of the varnish and its brilliant sound.
Marquis de Riviere	1718	Daniel Majeske	played by Majeske while concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1969-1993.
San Lorenzo	1718	Talbot Aachen	on loan to David Garrett
Lauterbach	1719	L. L. McLeod, Henryk Grohman?, M. Pommereul?, Johann Christoph Lauterbach, J. B Vuillaume, Charles Philippe Lafont , Gen. Michael Oginski? (The Hill diaries supposedly record the Lauterbach Stradivari as being in possession of "Herr Grohmann", of Łódź, 1913.)[27][citation needed]	missing?: stolen?: recovered?: Documents (Publication M1949-microfilm roll #20-PO52) relating to the disappearance and supposed recovery of this Stradivari have been obtained from the NARA facility, College Park, Maryland records state that a 1719 Stradivari violin was given to the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland in 1939, according to the will of Mr. Henryk Grohman. M.F.A.A. records (dating to 1948) state, that, a Nazi SS Major, Theodor Blank, was suspected and accused of stealing a 1719 Stradivari from the National Museum in 1944. No concrete proof exists that Mr. Theodor Blank stole the violin, and no official record exists of the violin being repatriated to Poland. Until recently, no photographs of the missing Lauterbach Stradivari were known to exist.[citation needed]
Lautenschlager	1719	Gift of Dr. Maria Alois Lautenschlager to Old Berlin Hochschule fer Musik, 1943. Used by Dr. Gustave Havemann, violin teacher.[citation needed]	Documents obtained from Berlin University archives reveal much controversy surrounding this instrument. Confiscated by Major Fadejew, Russian Army and taken from Berlin in 1945[citation needed]
Madrileño	1720
von Beckerath	1720	Michael Antonello
Red Mendelssohn	1720	Mendelssohn Family; Elizabeth Pitcairn	inspiration for the 1998 film, The Red Violin
Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis	1721		recovered in southern Germany in 2006
Lady Blunt	1721	Paolo Stradivari	named after Lady Anne Blunt, daughter of Ada Lovelace, granddaughter of Lord Byron.
Jean-Marie Leclair	1721	Jean-Marie Leclair;	on loan to Guido Rimonda [1]
Artot	1722
Jupiter; ex-Goding	1722	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Daishin Kashimoto; formerly Midori Goto
Laub-Petschnikoff	1722
Jules Falk	1722	Viktoria Mullova
Elman	1722	Chi Mei Museum
Cádiz	1722	Joseph Fuchs	on loan to Jennifer Frautschi; named after the city of Cádiz, Spain.
Kiesewetter	1723	Stradivari Society	on loan to Stefan Jackiw. [14]
Earl Spencer	1723		loaned to Emmy Verhey
Le Sarastre	1724	Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid	bequeathed to the Conservatory by Pablo de Sarasate; on loan to Chen Xi
Brancaccio	1725
Chaconne	1725	Österreichische Nationalbank	on loan to Rainer Küchel
Wilhelmj	1725	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Baiba Skride; one of several Stradivari violins with the sobriquet Wilhelmj
Greville; Kreisler; Adams	1726	Fritz Kreisler
Barrere	1727	Stradivari Society	on loan to Janine Jansen [14]
Davidoff-Morini	1727		missing: stolen in 1995 [28]
ex-General Dupont	1727		on loan to Jennifer Koh
Holroyd	1727
Kreutzer	1727	Maxim Vengerov	one of four Stradivari violins with the sobriquet Kreutzer (1701, 1720, 1731)
Hart; ex-Francescatti	1727	Salvatore Accardo
Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue	1727	Nippon Music Foundation	this violin along with the Paganini-Desaint violin of 1680, the Paganini-Mendelssohn viola of 1731, and the Paganini-Ladenburg cello of 1736, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Martin Beaver of the Tokyo String Quartet
Halphen	1727	Angelika Prokopp Private Foundation	on loan to Eckhard Seifert
Vesuvius	1727	Antonio Brosa Remo Lauricella Town of Cremona
A. J. Fletcher; Red Cross Knight	1728	A. J. Fletcher Foundation	on loan to Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo String Quartet; the instrument was made by Omobono Stradivarius [29]
Artot-Alard	1728
Dragonetti; Milanollo	1728	Giovanni Battista Viotti	on loan to Corey Cerovsek
Perkins	1728	Los Angeles Philharmonic	named after Frederick Perkins, formerly owned by Luigi Boccherini[30]
Benny	1729	Jack Benny; Los Angeles Philharmonic	bequeathed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Jack Benny
Solomon, ex-Lambert	1729	Murray Lambert; Seymour Solomon	sold at Christie's, New York for US$2,728,000 (€2,040,000)
Innes	1729		on loan to Eugen Sarbu; previously loaned to Wieniawski
Guarneri	1729	Canada Council for the Arts	on loan to Yi-Ja Suzanne Hou in 2003 [16][31]
Lady Jeanne	1731	Donald Kahn Foundation	on loan to Benjamin Schmid
Heifetz-Piel	1731	Rudolph Piel; Jascha Heifetz
Duke of Alcantara	1732	An obscure Spanish nobleman described as an aide-de-camp of King Don Carlos; UCLA	Genevieve Vedder donated the instrument to the University of California at Los Angeles' (UCLA) music department in the 1960s. In 1967, the instrument was on loan to David Margetts who left the Stradivarius on the roof of his car and drove off or claimed it was stolen from his vehicle. For 27 years the violin was considered missing until it was recovered from an amateur violinist. A settlement was made and the Stradivarius was returned to UCLA in 1995.[32][33][34]
Herkules	1732	Eugène Ysaÿe	missing: stolen in 1908 [25]
Tom Taylor	1732		previously loaned to Joshua Bell
Des Rosiers	1733	Angèle Dubeau
Huberman; Kreisler	1733	Bronislaw Huberman; Fritz Kreisler
Khevenhüller	1733	Yehudi Menuhin
Rode	1733
Ames	1734		missing: stolen in the 1960s [25]
Baron Feilitzsch; Heermann	1734	Baron Feilitzsch; Hugo Heerman Gidon Kremer
Habeneck	1734	Royal Academy of Music
Herkules; Ysaye; ex-Szeryng; King David	1734	Eugène Ysaÿe; Charles Münch; Henryk Szeryng; State of Israel
Lord Amherst of Hackney	1734	Fritz Kreisler
Lamoreux	1735		missing: stolen[citation needed]
Muntz	1736	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Arabella Steinbacher
Comte d'Amaille	1737
Lord Norton	1737
Chant du Cygne; Swan Song	1737	Ivry Gitlis

There are thirteen known extant Stradivari violas.^[35]

Sobriquet	Year	Provenance	Notes
Tuscan-Medici	1690	Cosimo III de' Medici	Commissioned by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Currently on loan to the U.S. Library of Congress
Archinto	1696	Royal Academy of Music[4]
Ex Kux/Castelbarco	1714	Royal Academy of Music	Converted from viol to viola by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume[36]
The Russian	1715	Russian State Collection
Cassavetti	1727	U.S. Library of Congress
Paganini-Mendelssohn	1731	Nippon Music Foundation	this viola along with the Paganini-Desaint violin of 1680, the Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue violin of 1727, and the Paganini-Ladenburg cello of 1731, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Kazuhide Isomura of the Tokyo String Quartet

Antonio Stradivari built between 70 and 80 cellos in his lifetime, of which 63 are extant.

Sobriquet	Year	Provenance	Notes
General Kyd; ex-Leo Stern	1684	Los Angeles Philharmonic	On April 25, 2004, the instrument was stolen from the front porch of Peter Stumpf. and was later found in a garbage container by Melanie Stevens who planned to have it made into a CD shelf. It was returned when she saw a television report about the cello. [37][38][39]
Antonio Stradivaruis	1673	Jacqueline du Pré Lynn Harrell
Barjansky	1690	Julian Lloyd Webber [40]
ex-Gendron; ex-Lord Speyer	1693	Kunststiftung NRW	on loan to Maria Kliegel; previously loaned to Maurice Gendron (1958-1990)
Bonjour	1696	Abel Bonjour Canada Council for the Arts	on loan to Soo Bae [16]
Lord Aylesford	1696	Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Danjulo Ishizaka; previously loaned to Janos Starker (1950-1965)
Castelbarco	1697
Servais	1701	National Museum of American History	on loan to Anner Bylsma;
Paganini-Countess of Stanlein	1707	Bernard Greenhouse
Markevitch; Delphino	1709	Royal Academy of Music
Gore Booth; Baron Rothschild	1710	Rocco Filippini
Duport	1711	Mstislav Rostropovich (1974-2007)
Mara	1711	Heinrich Schiff
Davydov	1712	Karl Davydov Jacqueline du Pré	on loan to Yo-Yo Ma.
Batta	1714	Alexander Batta Gregor Piatigorsky
Becker	1719
Piatti	1720	Carlos Prieto
Cristiani	1720
Baudiot	1725	Gregor Piatigorsky
Chevillard	1725	Music Museum (Lisbon)
Marquis de Corberon; ex-Loeb	1726	Royal Academy of Music
De Munck; ex-Feuermann	1730	Emmanuel Feuermann Aldo Parisot Nippon Music Foundation	on loan to Steven Isserlis [41][35]
Pawle	1730	Chi Mei Museum
Braga	1731
Paganini-Ladenburg	1736	Nippon Music Foundation	this cello along with the Paganini-Desaint violin of 1686, the Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue violin of 1727, and the Paganini-Mendelssohn viola of 1731, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Clive Greensmith of the Tokyo String Quartet

There are two complete extant guitars by Stradivari, and a few fragments of others, including the neck of a third guitar which is owned by the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris.^[42] These guitars have ten (doubled) strings, which was typical of the era.

Sobriquet	Year	Provenance	Notes
Hill	1688	Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University[43]
Rawlins	1700	National Music Museum South Dakota [44]

A number of sources claim that Stradivarius made only one harp in his life. It may be, however, that only one instrument has survived. Sources at the San Pietro a Maiella music conservatory in Naples, Italy, describe the arpettea (little harp) on display in their instrument museum as being the only surviving harp made by Stradivarius.^[45] Documentation for the instrument says it was one of three.

There are two known surviving mandolins made by Stradivari:

• Cutler-Challen Choral Mandolino, 1680, in the collection of the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota [2]
• As of 2006 the other was privately owned in London.

• Faber, Toby (2004). Stradivari’s Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection. New York: Random House. 
• Grovier, Kelly (22 August 2004). Biography of Antonio Stradivari. The Observer.
• Gough, Colin (Apr. 2000). Science and the Stradivarius. Physics Web. Institute of Physics Publishing..
• Hanscom, Michael (9 Dec. 2003). Stradivarius’ Secret. Eclecticism.

• A FourDoc (short on-line documentary) about a group of violin makers making a violin in the original spec of the maurin Stradivarius in just five days
• What makes a Stradivarius so Great?
• Cozio.com Online database of instruments by Antonio Stradivari.
• National Music Museum
• Cheniston K. Roland, Discography (incomplete) of Stradivarius recordings
• Mark Levine, "Medici of the Meadowlands", New York Times 3 August 2003 Herbert R. Axelrod's Stravarius collection.
• Online version of 1902 book about Stradivari by the W.E. Hill & Sons.
• Why do Stradivarius's violins sound sublime?
• Scientific research on the sound of the great violins
• Chladni patterns for visualizing violin plate resonance patterns
• Violin Dual a Draw for Antique Stradivarius vs. New Instrument - A blind test shows that Strad's legendary status may be unwarranted.
• Stradivari Violin Forms A detailed study of Stradivari's molds and drawings kept in the Cremona Museum..
• How Stradivari and Guarneri got their music discusses the chemical techniques used to figure out what makes these instruments' unique sound. From the February 1, 2007 issue of Analytical Chemistry