Abstract
As very few authentic mediaeval instruments remain, our knowledge of them comes mainly from pictures, references in literature and expense accounts, and from surviving folk instruments. The degree of caution required can be assessed by comparing the terminology of mediaeval word-lists. The Latin word ‘fidis’, for example, denotes a harp-string in the Catholicon Anglicum and a fiddler in an anonymous nominale, while ‘fidecen’ [fidicen] is a harper in the former manuscript and a fiddler in the Promptorium Parvulorum. The word ‘viella’, normally taken to mean a fiddle, appears also in the Promptorium as a lute. John Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse (1530) adds confusion to the point of ridicule.
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