If we look at the frontispiece we will see the psaltery, or _psaltérion_, resting on the lap of the lady on the extreme left, who holds the plectrum delicately, but firmly, in her right hand. But to reach our modern piano from these two quaint instruments we have to travel through several centuries. We get into a tangle of names when we stir up the ancestors of the pianoforte. The dulcimer and psaltery are simple enough, but from them we come immediately to the _clavicembalo_ (one of the Italian names for the harpsichord), or _gravicembalo_, as it was also called, which name was derived from _clavis_, a key, and _cembalo_, a dulcimer. Then we get the French _clavecin_ (which comes from _clavicymbalum_) _clavichord_, harpsichord, _harpsicordo_, _clavicordo_, and _clavier_. Then in the same group we have the virginal and the spinet, closely allied to these forerunners of the pianoforte in everything but their names. Students of the piano are often puzzled to know why they are given a _Suite de pièces pour le clavecin_, or a Prelude and Fugue from the Well-tempered[90] Clavichord. It is well to remember that the _clavecin_ (French), the _clavicembalo_ or _gravicembalo_ (sometimes _cembalo_ alone) and _harpsichordo_ (Italian), and _Clavicymbel_ or _Flügel_, meaning wing, from its shape (German) are all names for the harpsichord. All of these, as we will see by looking at the picture facing page 182 of Scarlatti at the _gravicembalo_, and that facing page 296 from Peter Preller’s _Modern Music Master_ (London), showing a gentleman at the harpsichord, have the form of our modern concert piano. On the other hand, the _clavicordo_, _clavichord_, and _clavier_, spinet and virginal, are of the square, oblong type, like the old square piano that has almost gone out of use. In all the instruments of the piano family, the place of the plectrum of the psaltery is taken by the “jack,” which was usually made of pear-tree. It rested on the back end of the key-lever with a movable tongue of holly kept in place by a bristle spring. Projecting at the end of the tongue at right angles was a thorn, or a spike of crowquill. As the key was pushed down, the jack was forced upwards and the quill brought to the string, which it plucked. The string was “damped” (softened) by a piece of cloth above the tongue. When the finger left the key, the key sprang upward to its own level and the jack fell. The jack, is exactly the principle of the plectrum of the psaltery adjusted to a key. The hammer of the pianoforte is only the old hammer of the dulcimer made into a part of the _action_, or mechanism, of the piano.