Double harp

Double harp (Ger.: Doppelharfe; It.: arpa doppia; Lat.: harpa gemina), earliest known *chromatic harp, in existence during the 16th and 17th c., with 2 rows of gut strings, the second being for accidentals. Vincenzo Galilei ascribed its invention to the Irish; Monteverdi called for one in his Orfeo (1607), and Praetorius depicted a cumbersome “great double harp.”