Scan 108
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 98. See the scan on archive.org.
1to Daniel Sanders, in Old High German, jucchan, and in Middle High German, jucken, this word is more likely affined with zucken than with geigen. The meaning of zucken is "to draw with a short and quick motion, to shrug, to shrink."
3In discussing the rebec, I have already drawn attention to a one-stringed fiddle which is depicted in Gerbert's "De Cantu et Musica Sacra," and which is generally believed to have been copied from a manuscript dating from the ninth century. I have some hesitation in expressing scepticism about the date assigned to Gerbert's illustration. I am rather inclined to accept it, because almost all our learned musical historians think it to be correct, and I am unable to prove decisively that it is incorrect. I venture, therefore, only to remind the reader that the illustrations in Gerbert's work are copied from different manuscripts, some being from the monastery of St. Emmeran, and others from the monastery of St. Blasius. That these manuscripts date from different centuries is evident from a statement in Gerbert's work (Vol. ii., p. 139) referring to two instruments, of which illustrations are given, copied from two different manuscripts to which Gerbert assigns respectively the ages of eight hundred and five hundred years.
5However, it is not the indication of these inventions which suggests a later period; the instruments existed probably at the period assigned to them as we find them here depicted. The difficulty is to accept the age of the one-stringed fiddle. If I were to form an opinion from its appearance, I should assign this instrument to a period not earlier than the twelfth century. The illustration represents an improved rebec resembling the geige. The shape of the bow depicted with it is less primitive than that which is represented with the Anglo-Saxon fithele of the eleventh century, of which presently some account will be given; and it is decidedly superior to the crooked shape of the rude bow depicted with the French crout, of the eleventh century, which has previously been noticed. The neck of the instrument is narrower in shape, more resembling that of the viol than did the neck of the rebec. It has a proper fingerboard, with which the rebec was not provided. The circumstance
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