Note 108 — Chapter X

In the British Museum copy the "XII. Sonate da Chiesa, Opera Quinta" of Bassani are bound up with "Sonate a Tre" by Giacomo Sherard. In plain English, the latter composer was a certain James Sherard, an apothecary by profession. The Bassani sonatas here mentioned were published at Amsterdam. Hawkins tells us that "an ordinary judge, not knowing that they were the work of another, might mistake them for compositions of Corelli." The first violin book has the following entry:—"Mr. Sherard was an apothecary in Crutched Friars about the year 1735, performed well on the violin, was very intimate with Handel and other Masters." This copy, which possibly belonged to Sherard, contains also the following, written apparently by the person into whose hands the book passed:—"Wm. Salter, surgeon and apothecary, Whitechapel High Street." The various sonatas, too, are marked in pencil—some as good; others, very good. The date, 1789, is also given—the year, probably, in which the volumes became the property of W. Salter.