Scan 126
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 116. See the scan on archive.org.
1latina was originally the fidicula, introduced into Spain by the Romans; and that it obtained the designation of guitarra latina after the Moors had introduced into Spain their guitar, which the Spaniards, by way of distinction, called guitarra morisca ("the Moorish guitar"). Furthermore, Hilarion Eslava, in his "Apuntes para la Historia Musical de España" (published in the "Gaceta Musical de Madrid," April 8, 1855), states that the guitarra latina, before it obtained this designation, was called vigola, and subsequently vihuela de mano. We shall presently see that these names are in all probability derivations of the Latin term fidicula.
3The conclusion that the Roman fidicula must have been a small instrument because its name is a diminutive of fides, appears rather hazardous. A pianino ("small pianoforte") is a large instrument compared with a violin; and a violino ("small viola") is a large instrument compared with a piccolo flute.
5I shall add here a few remarks about the substances of which the strings of the ancient eastern instruments were made, since this subject throws some light upon the construction of the early mediæval stringed instruments before the bow was applied to them.
7According to most of our musical historians, the strings of the various kinds of lyres were made of gut, or of the sinews of certain quadrupeds. However, they give no satisfactory evidence in proof of this statement. A. W. Ambros ("Geschichte der Musik," Vol. i., p. 469) says that metal strings were unknown to the ancient nations. The correctness even of this statement appears doubtful; according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson ("A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians," London, 1854, Vol ii., p. 82), the mode of drawing wire through holes in metal plates was not unknown to the Egyptians. He remarks, as might indeed be expected, that wire-drawing was first attempted with the most ductile metals, "gold and silver being used before brass and iron, because the wire was originally employed for ornamental purpose." At a very early period it seems to have been beaten out and rounded with a file. "Silver
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