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92 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
lute and sometimes as a fiddle. In some measure we do the same with the violin by playing occasionally pizzicato. The rotta (shown p. 91) from the manuscript of St. Blasius is called in Gerbert's work cithara taiionica, while the harp is called
cithara anglica; from which it would appear that the former was regarded as preeminently a German instrument. Possibly its name may have been originally chrotia 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 ose which have been advanced by some musical historians without any satisfactory evidence.
We engrave also another representation of David playing on the rotta, from a .psalter of the seventh century in the British museum (Colt. Vesp. A. I). According to tradition, this psalter is one of the manuscripts which were sent by pope Gregory to St. Augustine. The instrument much resembles the lyre in the hand of the musician (see p. 22) who is supposed to be a Hebrew of the time of Joseph. 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; and which is musi-
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