barbiton

The word barbiton was frequently used for the lyre itself.

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An instrument called barbiton was known in the early part of the 16th [6] and during the 17th century.

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Among the striking passages in the work are the pathetic sketch of the old violinist and composer, Pisani, with his sympathetic "barbiton" which moaned, groaned, growled, and laughed responsive to the feelings of its master; the description of Viola's and her father's triumph, when "The Siren," his masterpiece, is performed at the San Carlo in Naples; Glyndon's adventure at the Carnival in Naples; the death of his sister; the vivid pictures of the Reign of Terror in

Zanoni Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

Doni [8] mentions the barbiton, defining it in his index as _Barbitos seu major chelys italice tiorba_, and deriving it from lyre and cithara in common with testudines, tiorbas and all tortoiseshell instruments.

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Pollux (_Onomasticon_ iv.chap. 8, § 59) calls the instrument barbiton or barymite (from [Greek: barus], heavy and [Greek: mitos], a string), an instrument producing deep sounds; the strings were twice as long as those of the pectis and sounded an octave lower.

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[6] In Jacob Locher's _Navis Stultifera_ (Basil, 1506), titulus 7, is an illustration of a small harp and lute with the legend _nec cytharum tangit nec barbiton_.

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Although in use in Asia Minor, Italy, [v. 03 p. 0388] Sicily, and Greece, it is evident that the barbiton never won for itself a place in the affections of the Greeks of Hellas; it was regarded as a barbarian instrument affected by those only whose tastes in matters of art were unorthodox.

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Claude Perrault, [9] writing in the 18th century, states that "les modernes appellent notre luth barbiton"

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The barbiton, as pictured here, had probably undergone considerable modification at the hands of the Greeks and had diverged from the archetype.

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The barbiton, however, although it underwent many changes, retained until the end the characteristics of the instruments of the Greek lyre whose strings were plucked, whereas the rebab was sounded by means of the bow at the time of its introduction into Europe.

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