Scan 52
The violin, its famous makers and their imitators, 1887
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1and strung with three strings.1 The use of the word Geige in Germany instead of Fithele in the twelfth century, is worthy of attention as bearing upon Teutonic origin. The earliest information we have of the use of the Geige in France is in connection with the Jongleurs. The Geige was popular in France until the fifteenth century, when, as M. Lacroix says, it disappeared, leaving its name "as the designation of a joyous dance, which for a considerable period was enlivened by the sound of the instrument." The word Geige, I am inclined to think, is important as furnishing evidence of historical value in relation to the ancestry of the Violin. Lacroix believes that Germany created the Geige; other authorities are of opinion that it originated among the people of Provence. The former view is supported by the strongest evidence. Some inquirers derive the word Geige from the French and Italian words for leg of mutton.2 Wigand, however, supposes it to be derived from the old
31 Sebastian Wirdung, a priest, published a work in 1511, in which he describes the bow instruments of his time by the names Gross-Geigen and Klein-Geigen. The illustration of the Klein-Geige differs but little from the Rebec; it has three strings, whilst the Gross-Geige has nine. Further information is supplied by the work of Martin Agricola, published in 1529.—Mendel's German Musical Dictionary, article "Violine."
52 "Almost all our musical writers state, as if it were a well-ascertained fact, that the German word Geige is derived from the Gigue of the French Minstrels, who, during the 13th and 14th centuries had a sort of Rebec which they called by that name, and which, according to some commentators, resembled in outward appearance the shank of a goat or ram, called Gigot, and hence the origin of all the similar words occurring in different European languages. These commentators have, however, neglected to prove that the old French word Gigue occurs before the 13th century, or that it is earlier than the Middle High German Gige."—Engel's "Researches into the History of the Violin Family."
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