Diatonic harp
Date1500-1650 ca.
Place MadeItaly, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsnoneDescriptionThe very early instrument has a typical resonating chamber, the back carved to a linenfold pattern, the simple post grooved, the neck and pillar modern replacements by the Bisiachs, to restore the irreparably worm-damaged original.DimensionsMaximum height: 1418 mm
Width across top: 575 mm
Soundbox length: 1122 mm
Soundbox, maximum width: 213 mm
Soundbox, minimum width: 110 mm
Length, longest string: 1219 mm
Length, shortest string: 123 mm
ProvenanceBisiach Collection, Venegono Superoire—Bisiachs bought harp from a religious foundation in the region of Milan. Acquired from the Bisiach heirs, 1968.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesAndré P. Larson, "Early Italian Plucked Stringed Instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum," Lute Society of America Newsletter, Vol. 20, No. 1 (February 1985), p. 7.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), inside front cover and pp. 4.
“Instrumental Innovations,” Wall Street Journal (December 7,2007), p. W4.
Iris Graville, “Waking the Wood: The Design and Construction of Historical Harps,”
Early Music America, Vol. 15, NO. 3 (Fall 2009), pp. 25-29.
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03387
On View
Not on view1850-1890 ca.
1925-1935 ca.
