All of the old Gaelic harps as well as the extant continental instruments from before 1800 have tuning pins with square or rectangular heads, meaning that they were tuned with a tuning key. Such pegs go back at least as early as the 7th or 8th century AD as they are seen on some extant Germanic lyres. However there is a great dearth of information about what medieval and other early tuning keys were like, and none seem to be preserved with good provenance. This page is an attempt to gather evidence and documentation, with the hope that other people might send in more evidence. I am concentrating on the Gaelic harp tradition of Ireland and Scotland but will include relevant evidence from anywhere in Europe before c. 1800.

Evidence from surviving instruments

The square drives of old harps can tell us a little about how their tuning keys worked.... more soon

Evidence from written texts

Descriptions of the use of tuning keys... more soon

Evidence from old pictures

Martin van Schaick has surveyed the pictorial (and written) evidence for medieval European tuning keys from c. 1100 to 1300. His book The Harp in the Middle Ages includes a diagram illustrating the different shapes of tuning key visible in medieval manuscript miniatures of King David tuning his harp (p.57). Nine different shapes are shown; however it is not clear that these represent realistic depictions of instrument design, rather than fantasy impressions of ancient music making.

Extant old tuning keys

There are a few items that are catalogued as "tuning keys" but these attributions are dubious. More soon...