Books › The History of the Violin and Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present by William Sandys and Andrew Forster, 1864 › scan 27
Scan 27
The History of the Violin and Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present by William Sandys and Andrew Forster, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1or harp-shaped instrument, having twenty strings, held under the right arm, on which she plays with a plectrum, and which may have been a magadis. He has also a representation of Apollo (supposed to have been intended for Nero), with a lyre in his left hand and a long plectrum in the right.
3There are numerous representations of the plectrum used with the ancient lyre and lute, many of which, with the authorities, may be found in Montfaucon, and in Millin's "Galerie Mythologique." In the latter work there is a figure of Polyphemus in a state of musical and jealous excitement, holding an enormous lyre, made of the trunk of a tree with two branches, having four strings, and played on with a plectrum. Among the fictile vases in the British Museum, there is a figure of Anacreon playing on a lyre with seven strings, which has a plectrum attached to it by a string, and is played on with the right hand, while the fingers of the left hand touch the strings; the instrument is somewhat like the lyre du Nord, referred to hereafter.
5Some supposed old Roman sculptures or medals are mentioned with representations of something like a violin, but these are not considered genuine. The following is Spence's account of the detection of some that were once considered proofs of the early use of the bow, commencing with the figure of Apollo in the Grand Duke's Tribuna at Florence, supposed by Addison to have been genuine, but proved by Winckelman to be comparatively modern. "The little figure in the Tribuna, with a musical instrument like a violin, is left rough and unfinished by the artist, particularly the violin and the stick to play on it. It is held as we hold our violins." Mr. T. — Spence adds, "I have met but with two figures besides this with the modern violin.
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