One of the most interesting stringed instruments of the middle ages is the _rotta_ (German, _Rotte_; English, _rote_). It was sounded by twanging the strings, and also by the application of the bow. The first method was, of course, the elder one. There can hardly be a doubt that when the bow came into use it was applied to certain popular instruments which previously had been treated like the _cithara_ or the _psalterium_. The Hindus at the present day use their _suroda_ sometimes as a lute and sometimes as a fiddle. In some measure we do the same with the violin by playing occasionally _pizzicato_. The rotta from the manuscript of St. Blasius is called in Gerbert’s work _cithara teutonica_, while the harp is called _cithara anglica_; from which it would appear that the former was regarded as pre-eminently a German instrument. Possibly its name may have been originally _chrotta_ and the continental nations may have adopted it from the Celtic races of the British isles, dropping the guttural sound. This hypothesis is, however, one of those which have been advanced by some musical historians without any satisfactory evidence. In the _rotta_ the ancient Asiatic lyre is easily to be recognized. An illumination of king David playing the _rotta_ forms the frontispiece of a manuscript of the eighth century preserved in the cathedral library of Durham; it is musically interesting inasmuch as it represents a _rotta_ of an oblong square shape like that just noticed and resembling the Welsh _crwth_. It has only five strings which the performer twangs with his fingers. Again, a very interesting representation of the Psalmist with a kind of _rotta_ occurs in a manuscript of the tenth century, in the British Museum (Vitellius F.XI.). The manuscript was much injured by a fire in the year 1731; but Professor Westwood has succeeded, with great care, and with the aid of a magnifying glass, in making out the lines of the figure. As it has been ascertained that the psalter is written in the Irish semiuncial character it is highly probable that the kind of _rotta_ represents the Irish _cionar cruit_, which was played by twanging the strings and also by the application of a bow. Unfortunately we possess no well-authenticated representation of the Welsh _crwth_ of an early period; otherwise we should in all probability find it played with the fingers, or with a plectrum. Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian who lived in the second half of the sixth century, mentions in a poem the “Chrotta Britanna.” He does not, however, allude to the bow, and there is no reason to suppose that it existed in England. Howbeit, the Welsh _crwth_ (Anglo-Saxon, _crudh_; English, _crowd_) is only known as a species of fiddle closely resembling the _rotta_, but having a fingerboard in the middle of the open frame and being strung with only a few strings; while the _rotta_ had sometimes above twenty strings. As it may interest the reader to examine the form of the modern