Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 188
Scan 188
the history of the violin, 1864
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 166. See the scan on archive.org.
1although there are six screws, and Bonanni says there are six strings; it has also numerous frets. He mentions another instrument of the same class, invented by the Earl of Somerset, as referred to by Kircher, which had eight strings. The Latins, he says, called these instruments vitula, or vidula, or violla, whence the performers were called vitularii. The accordo (called by Mersennus lira moderna), to which we have before referred, was a still larger instrument, having twelve or fifteen strings, of which necessarily two or three were struck together; it also had frets. The lintercolo, or sordino, was a small instrument of the fiddle kind, with four strings and no frets; it is of guitar shape, the neck appearing to be of one piece with the body, and with a detached finger-board. (Fig. 58.) One of his figures is a peasant riding on an ass, playing on a sort of guitar, like a banjoo with two strings; the performer is evidently singing, and the ass joining with open mouth, forming an admirable trio. The monocordo is something like a clumsy trumpet marine, having, in addition to the usual single string, one much shorter, extending about half the length of the instrument, but not nearly meeting the bridge. The tromba marina given by him, is contracted for the space of about a third of the length from the nut, so as to form a sort of finger-board, though of one piece with the rest of the front; it has one thick string the whole length, and a small bridge
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