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RCM 124 Salterio Michele Barbi, Venice, 1744 Inscriptions Handwritten label on inside of back: Michael Barbi, Flor̃. / Fecit V{…}ijs 1744 Brief description Trapezoidal salterio with extension on the LH side for suboctave strings Dimensions : 985 : 341 : proximal side 680, distal side 368; angle of front corners c.64º : 129 : 65 : 52.5 : on main soundboard 68, on extension, 51.5 and 28 Description Black-stained frame of beech with ?spruce soundboard. Two soundholes with pierced gilded paper roses; soundboard framed with gessoed and gilded ogee mouldings. LH extension of two posts tenoned into side of main instrument with cross-piece forming a hitchrail for the sub-octave strings; this frame encloses an additional quasi-
soundboard with two more gilded paper roses and further gessoed and gilded edge-mouldings. There is a thin backboard close behind it. The surviving bridges, c.27mm high, are formed of slotted strips of gessoed and gilded beech, of various lengths, two sections for the RH set, and four for the LH set. Brass wire provides a bearing for the strings; the nuts at each end of the soundboard and on the extension are also of brass wire, diameter 1.3mm. There are 24 quadruple-strung courses arranged to give a compass of approximately thirty notes: a possible layout and tuning could give g to d3 without g♯ and a♯. The twelve courses on the RH bridges, give one pitch per course. String lengths, bass to treble: (497), (473), 450, 427, 403, 381, 357, 334, 312, 286, 260, 240mm. The two lowest courses may have had their own LH bridges, now missing. One string of each of the lower ten courses is hitched to the LH extension. These sub-octave string-lengths from bass to treble are: (820), 803, 778, 753, 733, 705, 683, 655, 633, 611mm. The longest string may be a later addition. The twelve strings on the LH bridges (two of which are missing) are divided in a ratio of approximately 2:3 and give two pitches per course. From bass to treble, string lengths are: 225:334, 213:317, 205:304, 196:288, 185:274, 174:260, 165:245, 156:229, 145:215, 136:200, 125:185, 112:173mm.
Salterio, Michele Barbi, RCM 124 24
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