The Cloyne harp

Made in 1621 by Donnchadh Fitz Teigh, for Sir John Fitzedmond Fitzgerald of Cloyne

Also known as Dalway harp or Fitzgerald Harp

On display at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins barracks, Dublin, Ireland, alongside a modern reconstruction by Bob Evans and Guy Flockhart.

"Large Low Headed" design;
45 + 7 strings. Longest (on reconstruction by Bob Evans and Guy Flockhart) 99cm

Resin cast of the Cloyne fragments restored, at Ballymaloe House, Cloyne, Co. Cork

Only the neck and part of the pillar survives of this harp. This harp has a disjuncture in the bass of the harmonic curve and seven extra strings in the mid-range, leading to speculation that it was an experimental chromatic design with a range of perhaps 29 diatonic notes. The extra seven strings are exactly in line with the main row and would not form a second rank - unless the single rank of strings were splayed out to two rows at the soundboard. The absence of the original box means we will never know for certain.

The neck and pillar are covered with carved and painted animals. They are copied from zoological books - late 16th and early 17th century animal encyclopedias which mark the transition from medieval bestiary to scientific classification. You can see images from the first and most important, Historiae Animalium by Conrad Gesner, 1551-87, here at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Compare especially the Beaver and the Satyr. The pictures on the Cloyne harp may derive from copies in Topsell, Historie of Foure-footed Beastes (1607) and The Historie of Serpents; Or the Second Booke of Living Creatures (1608).

References

Simon Chadwick