Also 5 vertuosyte, 7 vertuositie. [In sense 1 ad. med.L. virtuōsitas, f. late L. virtuōsus VIRTUOUS a. In other senses f. VIRTUOS-O + -ITY: cf. F. virtuosité.]
† 1. a. Manly qualities or character. Obs.–1
a. 1470. Harding, Chron., LIX. i. For his wyt and virtuosyte, Able he was, as Chronycles coulde fele, To haue ruled all the emperalyte.
† b. Virtuousness. Obs. (Bailey, 1721).
2. The pursuits, interests, or temperament, characteristic of a virtuoso; interest or taste in the fine arts, esp. of a fastidious, finical, dilettante or trifling nature.
1673. H. Stubbe, Further Vind. Dutch War, 82. We are regenerated from the School of Aristotle to that of Epicurus, from all Moral Gallantry and Virtue, to a most impertinent and effeminate Virtuosity.
1676. Wood, Life (O. H. S.), II. 360. Edward Bendlowes,… a great poet … spent about 7 hundred a yeare in vertuositie and on flattering poets.
1823. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., LV. 408. Charles-Augustus had imbibed … a taste for merit, a virtuosity in human excellence, to employ his preceptor’s phrase.
1840. Blackw. Mag., XLVIII. 491. The Viennese, by their wise virtuosity, do the thing [sc. eating and drinking] gently, and like gentlemen.
1886. Symonds, Renaiss. It., Cath. React. (1898), VII. xii. 189. This … state of things … was due rather to the abuse of science and of virtuosity.
b. spec. Excessive attention to technique, or to the production of special effects, in vocal or instrumental music (also transf. in art or literature).
1865. Reader, 18 March, 321/3. For this sentiment, this type of art, as applied to matters musical, there is a special name. It is called ‘virtuosity.’
1877. E. Prout, in Academy, 17 Feb., 150. We have a short sketch of the history of piano virtuosity.
1884. Haweis, Musical Life, II. 608. It is doubtful whether two such extraordinary personalities as those of Paganini and Liszt have ever appeared in the world of virtuosity.
c. With a and pl. A special study or interest of the kind affected by virtuosi.
1883. Century Mag., XXVI. 280. I’ve been cultivating some virtuosities, among other things.
3. Virtuosi collectively.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. iii. Where all the Virtuosity and nearly all the Intellect of the place assembled of an evening.
