Early Gaelic Harp Info: the Bologna double harp

Trinity College, Queen Mary, Lamont, Ballinderry, Cloyne, Otway, O'Fogarty, Kildare, Sirr, Mullagh Mast, Rose Mooney, O'Neill, Downhill, Bunworth, Hollybrook, Malahide 1, Malahide 2, Clonalis, Others, Foreign

Foreign harps

Wartburg, Rome, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Hofburg, Bologna 2, Estense, NMM, Kaiser, Barberini, Bologna 3, Evans, Boston, Sondershausen, Eisenach, Augsburg, Rabe

The Bologna double harp

Not to scale

Dated to the 16th century

Kept at the Museo Civico, Bologna.

"Gothic" design;
?56 strings

This instrument has two parallel rows of strings, a complete diatonic unison rows and a chromatic row. One of the rows is split on the neck; I am not sure about the belly. It is possible that the split row was added later to an originally diatonic instrument.

Simon Chadwick