Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
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The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its nam
Virginal made by Ruckers
Virginals
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The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
…Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816. It is now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. The word virginals does not necessarily denote any specific instrument and might refer to any instrument with a keyboard. It was given no title by its copyist and the…
An Italian spinetta or virginals after Alessandro Bertolotti, c. 1586, provided with a false outer case. Note the projecting keyboard, unlike the inset Flemish examples.
Woman at a Muselar, by Johannes Vermeer, c. 1672 (National Gallery, London). Note the keyboard placed to the right.
A typical muselar of the Ruckers school. Note the keyboard on the right of the case.