Bernhard Hofstötter's Page

"Dear Martyn, Thank you for your kind offer! Meanwhile I have a printout of a poor copy, presumably of the same copy that you have as well. Best regards, Bernhard"

"Dear Bernhardt, I have a photocopy of V's LIBRO SECONDO (Roma 1647) which I could photocopy again and send by ordinary surface mail to you. My copy is poor (many pages are very dark and difficult to make out) and my scanner is very slow and…"

"Any chance one of you would be willing to share those scans? I'm a couple years behind here but would love to get my hands on them. Thanks!"

"My dear Bernhard, Thank you for this and I'm sorry I did not explain matters to you with greater care. What I wished to say was since you agree that 'Clearly, the absence of a piece of wood could not possibly indicate anyone's…"

"Dear Martyn, You must have agreed with your inner self but that agreement luckily does not extend to me. You may (or may not) agree that this discussion (or dialogue des sounds) is a waste of time. I for one certainly do not intend to dedicate any…"

"My dear Bernhard, Hurrah! - I think we are now agreed: in short, there is no more reason to attribute this instrument to Sellas than to any other Italian maker of the era. Perhaps any future liner notes, marketing, etc should make this…"

"Dear Martyn, Thank you for your reaction. I think you are misreading what I said earlier. Neither I nor (to my knowledge) any other peresons did say that "a missing piece of wood can be said to strongly indicate that the instrument was by…"

"My dear Bernhard, Many thanks for your further clarification. It seems that the only outstanding substantive matter between us is about whether a missing(?) piece of wood can be said to strongly indicate that the instrument was by Sellas as some…"

"Dear Martyn, Here are my reactions to some of your points. I do not comment on restatements of points you had made earlier. On point 1: I agree. It was just your initial sweeping statement ("this is a seventeenth century Italian…"

"Dear Bernhard, I'll try and answer your own questions: 1. Do you mean to say it could be a Stradivari? No, but it could be a seventeenth century Italian instrument by any other maker than Sellas. Strad's patterns and shape are…"

"Dear Martyn, My comments are in bold below. Best wishes, Bernhard Many thanks for these links. I had, in fact, already seen them and it was the paucity of actual objective evidence contained in them which led me to contact you…"

"Dear Bernhard, Many thanks for these links. I had, in fact, already seen them and it was the paucity of actual objective evidence contained in them which led me to contact you directly. In my view, on the available evidence of the general…"

"Dear Martyn, Thank you for your interest. You will find answers to your questions in the following article: Sinier de Ridder, The appraisal and restoration of a guitar ascribed to Matteo Sellas, Venice c.1640", Classical guitare volume 26,…"