Lira da braccio
Maker
Francesco Linarol
Date1563
Place MadeVenice, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedWritten in black ink on trapezoidal label [label installed by Hills as a copy. They retained the original which is preserved in a Hill label book in a private collection]: Franciscj Linaroli Bergomensis / Venetiis 1563MarkingsPainted in black ink on ribs: DVM PER OVEM TRANSIBIT EQVVS SVRSVMQVE DEORSVM REDDIT MELLIFLVVM SYLVA IOCANTE MANV
While the horse will pass over the sheep up and down, the woodland gives back a sweet [sound] by means of the playing hand (see further notes in description)
DescriptionThe lira da braccio was developed in Renaissance Italy and used to accompany sung poetry in imitation of Greek and Roman poetic tradition. It has five strings over the fingerboard and two drone strings that could be bowed or plucked with the thumb of the left hand. Instruments of this type appear in iconography of the period and a few surviving examples. This lira da braccio, with a top by Linarol of Venice, was constructed in its current configuration by the Hill family of London in the last century.
Regarding the riddle on the sides of the instrument:
The inscription on the sides of the instrument, in black ink, is a riddle relating to the playing of stringed instruments, and uses wordplay relating to a pastoral theme. It also invokes Greek mythology, as the lyre is associated with Apollo, who is a pastoral deity and patron of shepherds. It is unknown in which period this ink inscription was added to the instrument, as its text style is appropriate for both a 16th century origin and later antiquarian work.
A 15th-16th century manuscript in the Ernestinum Gymnasium of Gotha in Thuringia contains a similar riddle: Dum per ovem transit equus sursumque deorsum - reddit mellifluum sylva jocante manu. (While the horse passes over the sheep up and down, the woodland gives back a sweet [sound] by means of the playing hand.) The manuscript version differs from that on the lira in the use of present tense for the word passes/travels (transit) rather than the future tense of the inscription on the lira (transibit).
The riddle is uncovered to mean the bowing of a stringed instrument with reference to the horse (the tail hair of which is the hair of the bow) passing back and forth over the sheep (strings of the time were made of the processed, twisted, and dried intestines of sheep). The imagery of the sheep and the horse invokes nature and herding, and the use of the word mellifluus, which means sweet, or flowing like honey, reinforces a pastoral affect, while also describing the flowing sweetness of the sound of the instrument. Likewise, the word sylva, or woodland, is used instead of the word lignum, which would mean timber, or the wood from which an instrument is constructed, more specifically. Iocante also seems to be a play on words, given it is the ablative singular masculine present participle of iocor, meaning both playing and jesting, and it modifies the word hand, manu, in the ablative case.
The same riddle, with the future tense word transibit rather than transit, is mentioned inscribed on a viol by Giuseppe Branzoli in his 1894 Manuele Storico del Violinista. It is described as having a one-piece set of sides with concave surfaces, and the riddle inscribed into the surface and filled with hard enamel. This instrument is also said to have purfling on the outline and at the center of the bottom, forming a simple design. It is possible that this reference influenced the reconstruction of the NMM's lira, including the addition of this riddle inscription.
A second source, Liutera - Storia ed Arte by Giuseppe Strocchi, 1937, mentions a violin attributed to "Giovanni Duiffoprugar" after the death of his father in Lyon, France, that has the same riddle, with transit in the present tense, like the renaissance source, as well as mentioning the instrument described by Branzoli.
These two sources, together, suggest that the inscription on the NMM's lira may be spurious, as it was common for restorers to use these sorts of sources when reconstructing instruments, and these descriptions were often of 19th century fakes that the authors were either fooled by, or had a financial interest in promoting as authentic. Indeed, there are no authentic violins attributed to the Tieffenbruckers (Duiffoprugars) of Lyon, who were likely simply functioning as French agents of their family in Venice. Their name has become tied up with the origins of violin-making in France as a fraudulent means of promoting fantastical instruments in the 19th century, as well as a nationalistic impulse to establish names of great violin makers in Renaissance France, which had to be fabricated, as little is known about the origins of French violin making. Indeed, many of the instruments bearing Duiffoprugar labels have riddles inscribed onto the sides. These sometimes take the form of garbled versions of the Latin verse "Dum vixi, tacui, mortua dulce cano" to the effect of "While living, I was silent, in death I sing sweetly." This type of text is incised on the ribs of a violin in the NMM's collection attributed to the French maker Honore Dezarey, ca. 1850-1870, NMM 5914.
An instrument of the same attribution and date as the NMM's lira appeared listed as a "viola" in the catalog of 1874 South Kensington exposition in London, by "Linaro, Venice, 1563, lent by Signor Francalucci" on page 363. It is possible that this is the NMM's instrument prior to acquisition by the Hills and its reconstruction.
7 strings, 5 over fingerboard and two drones
inset lower outline
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: fine grain; several original filled knots; wood pin through top into bottom at center joint
Back: one-piece slab-cut medium brown hardwood; no button
Ribs: carved from medium brown hardwood; concave outer surface and convex inner surface
Head and neck: maple: plain; leaf-shaped head; made by Hills
Arching: minimal recurve
Edging: made by Hills
Decoration: inlaid purfling knot patters on front and back
Varnish: medium brown
Fingerboard: brown-stained maple with inlaid purfling knot patterns; wedge-shaped; made by Hills
Nut: bone; made by Hills
Tailpiece: brown-stained maple with inlaid purfling knot patterns; lobed lower end; made by Hills
Tailgut: black gut
Pegs: seven brown-stained maple; made by Hills
Saddle: maple; no rise; purfling pattern continued with black-painted lines; made by Hills
Endpin: none; maple tailgut holder made by Hills
F-holes: tapered, pointed wings; undercut
Linings: none
Corner blocks: none
Top block: integral with neck; made by Hills
Bottom block: none; bottom rib lined in later white loose-woven cloth
Bassbar: spruce; made by Hills
DimensionsBack length excluding indentation at lower end: 51.1 cm
See technical drawing by John Pringle Durham, North Carolina.
Total lira da braccio length: 804 mm
Back length: 504 mm at indentation; 520 mm total length
Upper bout width: 241 mm
Center bout width: 169 mm
Lower bout width: 291 mm
Upper rib height: 36-40 mm
Center rib height: 38-40 mm
Lower rib height: 35-39 mm
Stop length: mm
Vibrating string length: 439 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 158 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1988 from William E. Hill & Sons, London, England.
Published ReferencesStefano Pio, "Merchants of Venice," The Strad 135 No. 1616 (December 2024), cover, p. 28.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 12.
Made for Music, 1986, #1.
André P. Larson, “Rare Lira Da Braccio a Highlight. . . Important Acquisitions Made by Museum in 1988,” The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 16, No. 2 (January 1989), pp. 1-3.
The Genius of North Italian Stringed Instrument Making poster, National Music Museum, issued March 1989.
"1988 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society XVIII, no. 1 (February 1989), p. 8.
"Important Acquisitions Made by Museum in 1988," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 16, no. 2 (January 1989), pp. 1-2.
David Boyden, The Hill Collection, pp. 14-15 and plate 8a-f.
Anthony Baines, European and American Musical Instruments, p. 6-7 and plates 1-6.
Irmgard Otto, Katalog der Streichinstrumente (Berlin), pp. 99-100.
“Instruments Loaned,” Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 16, No. 3 (April 1989), p. 3.
Carl Engel, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments (London: J. Strangeways, 1874), p. 363.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1988
Object number04203
On View
Not on view
