King David and His Choir; MS Harley 1892; Black and White Illustration

---

King David and His Choir; MS Harley 1892; Black and White Illustration; A remarkable group of musicians. King David is playing the bells; the other instruments are a triangle, sakbut, psaltery, and harp. At the date of this manuscript, early 15th century, the sackbut was just coming into use. The psaltery, held on the knees, was now superseding an earlier stringed instrument called the rote (a descendant of the lyre), which developed later into the Welsh crwth. The harp seems to have been considered in earlier times a specially English instrument; in a German manuscript of the nineth century it was called cithara anglica.

---

Size: 3000px × 2851px
Photo credit: © Timewatch Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 15th, band, bell, bells, black, century, choir, david, engraving, fifteenth, illustration, instrument, instruments, king, lyre, musical, musician, musicians, playing, psaltery, sackbut, timewatchimages, triangle, white