Urmawy unambigiously describes a psaltery with twisted copper-wire strings in the second half of the 13th cent. c.e. which does not seem to have been a novelty. What were the early clavichords (as in Zwolle) strung with? I would assume keyboard makers have established the early history of their strings? And btw., the problem of true strings isn't quite as big with an instrument without frets, i.e. only open strings, is it? I mean, for an Orpharion you would need far better strings than for a harp.
Best wishes, danyel (Ps: The word Germany or Teutschland was used as a designation of the lands inhabited by German speaking people long before Germany became a state) ----- Original Message ----- From: Jon Murphy To: LUTE-LIST ; Roman Turovsky Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 9:11 AM Subject: Re: Wire strings RT, your sources may be quite accurate as to the invention of drawing wire in Germany, but that doesn't say anything about other places. (...) Again you are looking at only European sources. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
