Introducing the Lira Da Braccio. The violin didn't just appear from nothing-- there's a long history

Introducing the Lira Da Braccio. The violin didn't just appear from nothing-- there is a long, traceable history of weird and unusual string instruments that eventually lead to it. In the coming months, I will be posting about them all in reverse chronological order.
💀 [Edited from Wiki] The lira da braccio was first cited in 1533 by Giovanni Maria Lanfranco (using the term "seven-stringed lyra"), also describing its tuning: [c-c' / g-g'-d'-a'-e]. The C's are the two drone strings off to the side. Lira was devised to accompany humanist sung verse by poets and was popular in the North Italian city-states.
😲 The rise of the madrigal (vocal music), and its counterpart, the instrumental consort, as well as the recent popularity of the more vocal Violin, soon toppled the Lira from its pre-eminent position at court, and by the 1530s it had been relegated to stage use.
📜 The Pesaro Manuscript, from the mid-16th century, an important document in the history of the Lira, records a Passemezzo Moderno, (contemporary dance measure) written in lira tablature. Discovered in the town of Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast, this strange, mutilated script is the sole surviving example of written music for the Lira. It suggests at least the possibility that the instrument was being used as a dance instrument by this time. Its harmonic character, and useful range of home keys would have been ideally suited to render the fashionable dance music of the day.
🖤 There are up to ten surviving examples of the Lira, the most famous and ornate is by Giovanni d'Andrea, (1511) in Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. It has human-like forms on both sides. Friggin creepy. (First image)
Play video from RUclips: 0Wcir1WCZus
😵Spoiler alert.... I'm gonna turn a violin into a lira soon.
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