VIRGINAL or VIRGINALS (Fr. Clavecin rectangulaire). Virdung (Musica getuscht und auszgezogen; Basel, 1511) is the oldest authority we can cite who describes this keyboard instrument. His woodcut of it shows a rectangular or oblong spinet, which agrees in form with what we are told of the spinetta of 1503, said by Banchieri (Conclusione nel suono dell' organo; Bologna, 1608) to have been the invention of the Venetian Spinetti. Banchieri derives the name ‘spinetta
’ from this maker; in later Italian...
