Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/78

pressly says were introduced when he was a boy. They project from centred tongues in uprights of wood known as jacks" (tig. 7), which also carry the dampers. The quills, rising by the depression of the keys in front, set the strings vibrating as they pass them, springs at first of steel, later of bristle, giving energy to the twang and governing their return. Scaliger remem bered the " harpichordum " and " clavi- cimbalum " being without those quill- points (mucronea), and attributes the intro duction of the name " spinetta " to them (from spina, a thorn). We will leave har pichordum for the present, but the early identity of clavicimbalum and spinetta is certainly proved. Scaliger s etymology has remained unquestioned until quite re cently ; it is due to Signor Ponsicchi of Florence to have discovered another de rivation. He has found in a rare book entitled Cotwlmione net suono delU organo, di D. Adiano Sanc/iit ri (Bologna, 1608), the following passage, which translated reads : " Spinetta was thus named from the inventor of that oblong form, who was one Maestro Gio vanni Spinetti, a Venetian ; and I have seen one of those instruments, in the possession of Francesco Stivori, organist of the magnificent community of Montagnana, within which was this inscription Joannes Spinetvs Venetvs fecit, A.D. 1503." Scaliger s and Banchieri s state ments may be combined, as there is no discrepancy of dates, or we may rely upon whichever seems to us to have the greater authority, always bearing in mind that neither invalidates the other. The intro duction of crow-quill points, and adaptation to an oblong case of an instrument previously in a trapeze form, are synchronous; but we must accept 1503 as a late date for one of Spinetti s instruments, seeing that the altered form had already become common, as shown by Virdung, in another country as early as 1511. After this date there are frequent references to spinets in public records and other documents, and we have fortunately the instruments themselves to put in evidence, preserved in public museums and in private collections. The oldest spinet we can point out is in the Conservatoire, Paris. It is a pentagonal instrument made by Francesco di Portalupis at Verona, 1523. The Milanese Rossi were famous spinet-makers, and have been accredited (La Nobilita di Milano, 1595) with an improve ment in the form which we believe was the recessing of the keyboard, a feature which had previously entirely pro jected ; by the recessing a greater width was obtained for the sound-board. The spinets by Annibalo Rosso at South Kensington, dated respectively 1555 (fig. 8) and 1577, The apparent compass of the keyboard in Italy generally exceeded four octaves by a semitone, E to F ; but we may regard the lowest natural key as usually C, and the lowest sharp key as usually D, in these instruments, according to " short measure. " The rectangular spinet, Virdung s " virginal, " early assumed in Italy the fashion of the large " casone " or wedding chests. The oldest we know of in this style, and dated, is the fine specimen belonging to M. Terme which figures in L 1 Art Decoratif (fig. 9). Virginal is not an Italian name ; the rectangular instrument in Italy is " spinetta tavola." In England, from Henry VII. to Charles II., all quilled instruments (stromenti di penna), without distinction as to form, were known as virginals. It was a common name, equivalent to the contemporary Italian claiicordo and Flemish clavisinyel. From the latter, by apocope, we arrive at the French clavecin, the French clavier, a keyboard, being in its turn adopted by the Germans to denote any keyboard stringed instrument. Mersenne gives three sizes for spinets, one 2^ feet wide, tuned to the octave of the " ton de chapelle " (in his day a whole tone above the present English medium pitch), one of 3^ feet, tuned to the fourth below, and one of 5 feet, tuned to the octave below the first, the last being therefore tuned in unison to the chapel pitch. He says his own spinet was one of the smallest it was custom- FIG. P. Milanese Spinetta, by Annibalu Hosso, 1555; South Kensington Museum. show this alteration, and may be compared with the older and purer form of one, dated 1568, by Marco Jadra (also known as Marco "dalle spinette," or " dai cembali"). Besides the pentagonal spinet, there was an heptagonal variety ; they had neither covers nor stands, and were often withdrawn from decorated cases when required for performance. In other instances, as in the 1577 Rosso spinet, the case of the instrument itself was richly adorned. FIG. 9. Spinetta Tavola (Viiginul), 10 ary to make, but from the lettering of the keys in hi;t drawing it would have been of the second size, or the spinet tuned to the fourth. The octave spinet, of trapeze form, was known in Italy as "ottavina" or " spinetta di serenata." It had a less compass of keys than the larger instrument, being apparently three and two-third octaves, E to C, which by the " short measure " would be four octaves, C to C. We learn from Prsetorius that these little spinets were placed upon the larger ones in performance; their use was to heighten the brilliant effect. In the double rectangular clavisingel of the Netherlands, in which there was a movable octave instrument, we recognize a similar intention. There is a fine spinet of this kind at Nuremberg. Praetorius illustrates the Italian spinet by a form known as the " spinetta traversa," an approach towards the long clavicembalo or harpsichord, the tuning pins being immediately over the keyboard. This trans posed spinet, more powerful than the old trapeze one, became fashionable in England after the Restoration, Haward, Keene, Slade, Player, Baudin, the Hitchcocks, Mahoon, Haxby, the Harris family, and others having made such " spinnets " during a period for which we have dates from 1G(>8 to 1784. Pepys. bought his " Espinette " from Charles Haward for <5, July 13, 1668. The spinets of Keene and Player, made about 1700,

have frequently two cut sharps at the bass end of the key-