Why Scrolls?

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

Scroll of a Gasparo da Salo viola, Brescia circa 1609

In my role as a violin maker and shop owner, I often hear string players searching for an instrument say, "I don't really care what it looks like, I'm only interested in the sound." To which I usually reply, "If looks didn't count, we could paint them all black and use a square block for the scroll." Obviously, in violin family instruments, looks count. We're all interested in the color and beauty of the varnish, the beauty of the wood, and the artistic details such as the f holes, the arching, and the scroll. The scroll is
the top part of the instrument with the completely useless detail of being shaped in expanding concentric circles. Yes, completely useless. A square block would work just as well. But a square block wouldn't look nearly as nice. Or have so much power in its beauty.

Scroll of an Andrea Amati violin, Cremona circa 1577

Viola scroll, Peregrino di Zanetto, Brescia circa 1564

image from The National Music Museum

A bottle with a scroll motif, SouthEastern US circa 1200

In fact, to see the most beautiful parts of a violin, viola or cello you have to stop playing and hold the instrument as an art piece. You have to turn the instrument over to see the flamed Maple of the back and you have to hold the instrument close to your face to look at the scroll. Face to face, eye to eye, and nose to nose. For violins and violas, the act of looking at the scroll is the opposite position of playing. (Just another reason cellos rule! Hah, just kidding.....Sort of.)

Scroll, 'The King', Andrea Amati Cello, Cremona circa 1538

image from The National Music Museum

The scroll motif is a very ancient and universal symbol in art and architecture throughout the world. It's visible in ancient Asian and Middle Eastern art and in Pre-Columbian Native American art. 

An ancient abacus with a scroll motif

But why a scroll on top of stringed instruments? The earliest violin makers were probably not the innovators of using a scroll on a stringed instrument. There's some evidence that viol family instruments were being made with scrolls as early as the 1400s. But viol makers also used human and animal heads at least as often. It's in the violin family that we see the scroll become the standard piece of headstock. In Italian, the scroll is called "la testa", the head.

So how do we get to a scroll? Especially the type of scroll that incorporates a flowing reverse curve into the pegbox.

Side view, the scroll of the 'Messiah' Stradivarius violin

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls before they were unraveled

Roman papyrus scroll preserved by volcanic ash, Southern Italy circa 79 CE 

The perfect violin scroll? The 'Messiah' Stradivarius violin, Cremona, circa 1716

One side of a Torah scroll

First, some ancient history on writing and record keeping. Books were not invented as a form to keep written documents in until the first century CE (Common Era). Before then, documents were rolled up and stored as a single or double cylinder. Being the moderately good Torah scholar that I am, when I first learned the top of a violin was called a scroll, I compared it to a Torah Scroll (containing the Five Books of Moses) or the Book of Esther Scroll (The Megillah). How does a violin scroll relate to an ancient written scroll? If you look at the ancient scrolls from the top to the bottom of the rolled up part you can see that the violin scroll is an artistic carving of a written scroll. Make your own scroll and see. Take a large piece of paper, roll it up, then let it unfurl a bit. View it from the top or the bottom. Voila! A violin scroll shape.

Megillah

This type of scroll motif is called a Vitruvian Scroll, named after a Roman architectural historian from the first century BCE (Before the Common Era) Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, one of the first people to describe its use in architecture.

Vitruvian scrolls 

Scroll, Andrea Guarnerius viola, the 'Primrose' , Cremona circa 1697

Scroll, Stradivarius violin, Cremona, circa 1722

Scroll, Antonio Gragnani violin, Livorno circa 1788

You can also get a similar scroll design by drawing the areas of the Fibonacci Sequence. C'mon, get your geek on! Fibonacci Sequence- the series of numbers you get by adding up the two numbers before it. 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34..... Once you know and can visualize the Fibonacci Sequence you'll start seeing it all around you. In nature, in art and design, and in violin scrolls. Was the Fibonacci Sequence known to early violin makers? Probably. Fibonacci lived from circa 1170 to circa 1250 in Pisa, Italy, and was a well known Italian mathematician.

A Fibonacci Spiral

Scroll, 'King Henry IV' Amati violin, Cremona circa  1595

Whether the early violin makers took their cues from Vitruvian Scrolls or Fibonacci Scrolls, or both, the scroll motif has been used to symbolize heavenly power, harmony, and unending possibilities (such as the waves of the ocean). Hmm, I'll put that on top of my violin any time! Did the early violin makers think along those lines? No one knows. But nothing happens on a violin without a reason. Surely the scroll had some or all of this symbolism to the first violin makers.

Scroll, Andrea Amati violin, Cremona circa 1577

Scroll, G.P. Maggini violin, Brescia circa 1632

By the way, carving a violin scroll is not an easy thing! The violin maker has to be constantly comparing and balancing all four sides - front, back, and both sides. Each side and feature should look the same from all the angles. Unless you're Guarnerius del Gesu. Then you can make a flop eared scroll look cool.

The scroll of Paganini's 'Il Canone' violin by Guarnerius del Gesu, Cremona circa 1742

A set of scroll gouges, used for carving a violin,viola or cello scroll

So now that you know so much about scrolls, look at the scroll on your instrument. Are the ears the same size and do they align? Do the curves flow into each other? Are the curves more circular or oval? Do you think it's beautiful? Do you like how the curves of the scroll flow into the curve of the pegbox? What do you think- Is the beauty  of the scroll important? Or could a square block serve the same function?

Scroll, Andrea Amati violin, Cremona circa 1570

Violin Scroll, Peter Guarnerius, circa 1732

Three beautiful violin scrolls. Gaetano Gadda on the right; Giuseppe Nupieri, center; Haim Rappaport on the left.

J.B.Vuillaume cello, 1841

Scrolls- Cerin, 1792, center; Storioni, 1793, right; Gragnani, 1788, left; Mantegazza, 1793, back


J.B. Vuillaume cello, 1841

Scroll, J.E. Zust violin, Zurich, 1922

Scroll, the 'Harrison' Stradivarius, Cremona circa 1693

Scroll, the 'Ole Bull' Guarnerius del Gesu, Cremona,  1744

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