The chitarrone is sometimes called the Roman theorbo. It is of greater length than the Paduan theorbo, with which it was introduced towards the end of the sixteenth century,--owing to a necessity having arisen for bass instruments of greater sonorousness than had been used before, in order to accompany the newly-invented recitative. About the same time there also came into use a larger instrument of the viol family, known as the violone, the precursor of the double bass. The heavier basses and simple harmonies, for which the Italians had shown a growing preference, replaced, to a great extent, the ingenious interweavings of counterpoint, and assisted the development of the latest offspring of the Renaissance, that of Monody--the recitativo and aria--introduced in Florence by Peri, Caccini, Cavalieri and Monteverde, the foundation of the modern Italian opera. The chitarrone was used in the orchestra of Monteverde on the first production of his _Orfeo_ in 1607. There is also mention of it in a band of instruments as early as 1589. [Illustration: XXII] PLATE XXII. SPINET. This "Spinet," with its original six-legged stand, was made in London about the end of the seventeenth century. "Stephanus Keene Londini Fecit," is inscribed upon the name-board, which is characteristically inlaid with birds and foliage. It is a transverse Spinet, the Italian "Spinetta traversa," an adaptation of the longer bichord or trichord harpsichord within the limitations of size of this instrument, which, like the trapeze-shaped and oblong spinets, had one string only to each note. The tail is extended on the right-hand side; the key-board is placed somewhat obliquely, and the wrest-plank, with the tuning-pins, is immediately above the key-board, instead of being, as in the older spinets, at the right-hand side. The compass of the key-board is from the second B below, to the second D above, the middle C,--in all four octaves and two notes, being one note more in the treble than occurs in the key-board diagram to Henry Purcell's _Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet_. The lowest key would, however, be tuned down to the lowest pianoforte G, the object being to secure a dominant bass for the lowest C. Purcell's diagram for the spinet gives the lowest key as "B B," but, in the lessons, he here and there writes down to G G, also to A A, for which the lowest C[sharp] key would be similarly accommodated. The two lowest sharps of the spinet here drawn present the peculiarity of being cut or divided, each division being an independent key. These were not quarter-tones as has been supposed; the front halves were tuned A and B for dominant basses like the G, and the back halves C[sharp] and D[sharp], chromatic semitones to the adjacent natural notes, thus combining the "Short Octave" principle, indispensable for the performance of contemporary music, with the chromatic system then beginning to be recognised.