The classical woodwind of Renaissance and Baroque Europe was a vertical flute, a variety of flageolet characterized by its wider, tapering bore, called recorder. Prototypes of the instrument can be followed back to the twelfth century, and
Sachs
(1940) saw a flute with tapering bore on a French miniature of the eleventh century. Known on the European continent as flute,
later with qualifications derived from its timbre (flûte douce, flauto dolce), or form (flûte à bec, Schnabelflöte), it...
