Late-Medieval Stringed Instrument

Late-Medieval Stringed Instrument

“… plucked instruments were frequently associated with Venus, with love and well-being, with springtime and vernal pursuits.”

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Guide

2nd edit, 1994

p. 452

One can almost hear Abelard

serenading Héloïse with this

ornately carved hunk of boxwood

perhaps choosing nuptial hymns

from the Carmina Burana

and not one of his famous drinking songs

he’d just sung an hour before

with the boys

immediately following mass

———————

Source:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/64.101.1409