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 49
Scan 49
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
4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER III.
3HE names fiddle, or fythele (fydele), among the Anglo-Saxons, and fidula with the Latin writers, are of very early date; by some of the latter, the "cithara sive fidula" is classed with "vulgaris musica." Isidore, Bishop of Seville in the seventh century, uses the word cithara as a general name for stringed instruments, stating there were several sorts, as psalterium, lyra, barbiton, &c. Some have derived the Latin word vidula, or vitula, from vielle, but we do not see why it should not be derived direct from fythele. Mr. Wm. Chappell, in his valuable and interesting work on the "Popular Music of England," one that while it shows the research of its author, places our country in a high position in the early history of music, derives vielle from fythele in the following manner. The Normans, finding the Saxon ȝ or th not easy to pronounce, were in the habit of adapting it to their own pronunciation, and thus changed the word fythele to vile, or vielle, omitting the objectionable letters; but whether this derivation be correct or not, the term fydyll or fithele also continued in use. In the legendary life of St. Christopher, written about the year 1200, it is said the king "loved melodye of fithele, and of songe;" and in the version or edition of Lazamon's "Brut" (a work of the thirteenth century) by Sir F. Madden, the fythele
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.