Of the more complex instruments, which were perfected and widely
diffused at a very early period, we find not only the organ, but a
corresponding string instrument, the 'gravicembalo' or 'clavicembalo.'
Fragments of these dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century
have come down to our own days, adorned with paintings from the hands
of the greatest masters. Among other instruments the first place was
held by the violin, which even then conferred great celebrity on the
successful player. At the court of Leo X, who, when cardinal, had
filled his house with singers and musicians, and who enjoyed the
reputation of a critic and performer, the Jew Giovan Maria del Corneto
and Jacopo Sansecondo were among the most famous. The former received
from Leo the title of count and a small town; the latter has been taken
to be the Apollo in the Parnassus of Raphael. In the course of the
sixteenth century, celebrities in every branch of music appeared in
abundance, and Lomazzo (1584) names the three most distinguished
masters of the art of singing, of the organ, the lute, the lyre, the
'viola da gamba,' the harp, the cithern, the horn, and the trumpet, and
wishes that their portraits might be painted on the instruments
themselves.97 Such many-sided comparative criticism would have been
impossible anywhere but in Italy, although the same instruments were to
be found in other countries.
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