To find the origin of the pianoforte we must go back to the dulcimer and the psaltery, or _psaltérion_. These two instruments are much alike, differing only in the way they were played. The strings of the dulcimer were set in vibration by hammers held in the hands of the performer, and the strings of the psaltery were plucked with an ivory, metal, or quill, plectrum, or even by the fingers. The psaltery was smaller than the dulcimer and had fewer strings. Perhaps the name dulcimer was derived from the words _dulce melos_, sweet melody; but it was only one of the names for the instrument. The French called it _tympanon_; the Italians _cembalo_ and _salterio tedesco_ (German psaltery); and the Germans _hackbrett_, a board for chopping sausage-meat. The Hungarian, or Magyar, name for it is _cimbelom_. It is played in Hungarian bands. The dulcimer was a three-cornered or trapeze-shaped instrument, about three feet at its widest part composed of a wooden frame inclosing a wrestplank for the tuning pins around which one end of the strings were wound; a soundboard with two or more sound-holes; and two bridges over which the strings passed. Opposite the wrestplank there was a hitchpin-block, to which the other ends of the strings were attached. The dulcimer had about fifty notes, and several strings (two, three, four, and even five) were used for each note. They were of fine wire. The dulcimer was placed on a table and struck with hammers, the heads of which were of leather, hard on one side and soft on the other to get the required loud and soft _forte_ and _piano_ effects. There was no damping (checking) contrivance to stop the vibration. The compass was from two to three octaves from C or D in the Bass Clef. The psaltery and dulcimer came from the East; they had been known in Persia and Arabia for centuries when the Crusaders made their acquaintance and brought them home. Chaucer describes the instrument in his _Miller’s Tale_, (_Canterbury Tales_) as “a gay sauterie.” It appears in that beautiful fresco of Orcagna’s, _Triumph of Death_, in the Campo Santo in Pisa (1348) and in many illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. From its likeness to the shape of a pig’s head, old writers often call it _Istromento di porco_. Even as late as 1650, when instruments had improved so greatly, Kircher wrote in his _Musurgia_ that the psaltery played with a skilled hand is second to no other instrument, and Mersenne praises “its silvery tone and purity of intonation so easily controlled by the fingers.” These two instruments were often beautifully decorated and inlaid and the sound-holes artistically treated. [Illustration: VIOLINIST, SINGER, AND LADY PLAYING THE VIRGINAL]