I have looked at all the dots or pin pricks on the drawing and have matched them up to the pattern that the seven dots in Fig. 1 represent. Also on the left hand side, you can make out faint outlines of a rib structure. The dots belong to this curve. The interesting bit is that the middle line of the drawing is exactly in the centre of the two sets of dots (Fig.2). Obviously it is not crucial to have both sides of the ribs, as the cello drawings prove; one half is enough if you don't want to use a whole sheet of paper. And we know that paper was expensive in those days. But if you do want to show a centre line, which Stradivari obviously
did on some occasions, the only way I can think of is to
trace the two sides of the ribs. Stradivari
seems to have placed two divider dots with
the ap p roximate half of the distance (or
actually a bit less) between both the upper
and lower bouts. Then he made a little
cutout in the middle of the dots and
connected the two cutouts with a line.
The other thing I found was that these
dots, when superimposed on the outlines of
the corresponding G-form, fit almost
perfectly together when you add the mm or
more for the rib thickness (Fig. 3). Also the
centre lines of the mould and the drawing fit
re a l ly nicely. Th at might be complete
coincidence if the measurements of the
drawings turn out to be wrong, but then at
least it was worth pointing it out. In any case
Stradivari seems to have used this paper for sketches
