Hurdy-gurdy

Hurdy-gurdy [U.], mechanically bowed chordophone known since med. times, when it was called *organistrum, and which we first hear of in a short treatise by Odo of Cluny (d. 942) entitled Quomodo organistrum construatur (How an Organistrum Should Be Constructed), which deals with monochord string divisions to determine the emplacement of the organistrum's key rods. From the 12th c. it is also depicted. At first it appears with a cumbersome, fiddle-shaped body and 3 strings, all of which were…