Davide Sora

Some scans can be found in this book, which was published following studies done on the Messiah on the occasion of his miraculous apparition here in Cremona in 2016. Good cues on authenticity too. http://www.cremonabooks.com/eng/shop_dettaglio.php?id=3103

Thanks Michael, in fact, given my long waiting list, my violins increase in value compared to the purchase price even before they are born. This is hard to beat as an investment value. More seriously, Cremona is still a strong brand name for violins, unfortunately too often abused

The PG form is 161-102.5 - 200 mm in widths and 347 mm in length, so subtracting the thickness of ribs from your measurements it seems that you are a good 2 mm out in all sizes including the length. Maybe you started from a too enlarged image to make the template.

Light, stable, easy to work, easy to bend, sufficiently compact and tought for the upper and lower blocks, as light as possible for corner blocks, and don't forget with a nice color

What are the actual measures?

With spruce you still have illustrious predecessors like Del Gesù, not bad at all.... I also use spruce for my rare violins based on Del Gesù forms.

I agree, it is difficult to find poplar lighter than willow, although it cannot be excluded.

The willow that is used for blocks and linings and that supposedly was used most frequently by Stradivari is the White Willow (Salix Alba). The reddish wood that distinguishes it makes it often confused with the Red Willow, which instead is a shrub that is not good for making blocks. Nowadays here in the Po valley it is difficult to find it pure because it is almost always hybridized with poplar, which is cultivated almost everywhere for the paper and plywood industry for many years now, with the result that the wood is different and denser. The Salix Alba that I use for my blocks and linings has a density of 0.36 g / cm3 and probably comes from Tuscany where there was no hybridization (they do not grow poplars on an industrial scale there).

Did the surgeon forget some steel pliers inside when he closed the patient?

Leave some for me too....

Yes, that's it! Thanks Reguz for reminding

I'm not a big fan of low density wood, but considering that the weight of ancient instruments is always outrageously low (unattainable?), I find it very difficult to think that they used high density wood, even if at first it had to be a little denser but not by so much.

I've already seen these "spirals" somewhere, it doesn't seem like a new idea. Nice artistic compositions, however

The answer to get stiffness features more similar to a flat board could be a bent plate, if you like it.

Or .... the colored varnish was so easy to apply in a uniform color layer that even the most sloppy maker could do a perfect job. I'm led to think more about this eventuality, but it could also be like your hypothesis, who knows.