The origin of the psaltery are not to be sought in the Greek civilisation, as its name might lead us to believe, but in the most ancient Eastern civilisations (it very probably descends from Quanun, an Arabic instrument which reached Europe in the 16th century). The psaltery is an instrument equipped with strings with fixed sounds to be plucked, either with fingertips or with the plectrum. The strings of this instrument on one side are fixed onto lateral pegs and then span adjustable bridges. The psaltery should be seen as the ancestor of the spinet and harpsichord. After a period of being unfashionable it became popular again with the courtly society of the fifteenth, sixteenth and even the seventeenth century in Europe. It was usually trapeze-shaped, and housed in elegant cases that were often exquisitely painted.
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