ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys violin and violin-making histories, especially from 1780 to c.1810, as a vehicle to examine the primacy of the old, 'Italian' paradigms in the context of French nationalism. This approach provides a lens to explore afresh the relationships between French nationalism and the violin's international historical narrative; violin historiography and aesthetic beliefs and practices; and historicist and suprahistorical fallacies. The chapter argues that the Universalist history of violin-making is implicitly nationalist in its construction. After briefly establishing the general social circumstances of violinmakers, the chapter analyzes the narrative's nationalistic traits, and then explain how and why it promoted a universal paradigm, which became fetishized. Old violins are cultural artefacts whose meaning has deep roots in their cultural-historical context. Despite the inherent hierarchy of the violin-making canon and its historicist ideals, the violin was a symbol of France's struggle for liberty and equality; of France's nationalism and universalism; and its hope for peace and renewal.
