On Thu, Aug 3, 2006, Bernd Haegemann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > there were organs in England in the middle ages.
and elsewhere. Organ tablature survives from mid 1400's. The few depictions of church organ keyboards lead us to think they were clumsy to play, more to be struck by fist than finger. Smaller organs which sit on the knee and had one or two ranks of perhaps one or two octaves are attested to iconographically for considerable time prior to Castiglione. The Checker is thought to have been a keyboard instrument. A mechanism like keys is sometimes used on hurdy-gurdies. Not sure if they survie now, but the inventories of Englands Royal household goods would certainly list keyboard instruments as they do woodwinds and strings. Yes, lutes and viols will certainly outnumber keyboards, and are more easily ported, but I can easily see Castiglione taking advantage of the language to mean both lutes and keyboards. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
