It is a "clone" of a Singer model 15. You can download a free manual for a Singer 15 from internet. IT has one really nice feature and that is the knob that you can turn to "darn" which drops the feed dogs for free motion quilting. Have fun with it. The Japanese often used foreign names that seemed to them to indicate something really good or classy. The Stradavario is after the famous Italian Violin maker. I have one like similar called a Fiatelli - like the car. great machine, and a pretty color.