The term virginal
has been reserved for the rectangular form of spinet whose history starts, for practical purposes, about 1460 with the statement of
Paulus Paulirinus
that it had the form of a clavichord, the sound of a harpsichord, and was strung with thirty-two metal strings. Paulirinus taught at Cracow, had visited Italy, and may have heard the word on his travels. Its etymology has puzzled scholars for generations, and virga, Latin for rod,
or a compliment paid to the Virgin...
