Name of a town in Lombardy, where the art of violin-making reached its highest perfection in the 17th and early 18th century. attrib. Pertaining to or made at Cremona, as in Cremona fiddle, school, violin; absol. A violin made there. Also (from Fr.) † Cremone. Hence Cremonese a.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xv. 68. I’ll stake my Cremona to a Jew’s trump.
1784. T. Sheridan, Life of Swift (1785), 381 (J.). A Lady whisking about her long train, which was then the fashion, threw down and broke a fine Cremona fiddle .
1798. Harrington, Retort Courteous. ’Twas thieving Pindar, ’tis well known, Swindled his Godship’s old Cremone.
1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Quot. & Orig., Wks. (Bohn), III. 214. The Bible … is like an old Cremona; it has been played upon by the devotion of thousands of years.
1879. P. David, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 416/1. ‘A Cremona,’ or ‘a Cremonese violin’ is often incorrectly used for an old Italian instrument of any make.
