Paganini 1839-1840

Niccolo Paganini, the violin virtuoso whose speed and technical skill terrified audiences, died in the house on the corner of rue de la Prefecture and rue de l'Opera in May eighteen forty. He spent his final months in a second-floor room here, too weak to hold his bow but still obsessed with his gambling debts and his son. He grew so emaciated that the local neighbors believed he was a ghost, and the bishop eventually refused him a church burial for years.