Editing Virginals (section)

==Types==
===Spinet virginals===
[[File:Spinetta or Italian virginals.Jpg|thumb|An Italian {{lang|it|spinetta}} or virginals after Alessandro Bertolotti, {{circa}} 1586, provided with a false outer case. Note the projecting keyboard, unlike the inset Flemish examples.]]

Spinet virginals (not to be confused with the [[spinet]]) were made principally in Italy ({{langx|it|spinetta}}), England and [[Flanders]] ({{langx|nl|spinetten}}). The keyboard is placed left of centre, and the strings are plucked at one end, although farther from the [[bridge (instrument)|bridge]] than in the harpsichord. This is the more common arrangement for modern instruments, and an instrument described simply as a "virginal" is likely to be a spinet virginals. The principal differences in construction lie mainly in the placement of the keyboard: Italian instruments invariably had a keyboard that projected from the case, whilst northern virginals had their keyboards recessed in a keywell. The cases of Italian instruments were made of [[cypress]] wood and were of delicate manufacture, whilst northern virginals were usually more stoutly constructed of poplar. Early Italian virginals were usually [[hexagonal]] in shape, the case following the lines of the strings and bridges, and a few early Flemish examples are similarly made. From about 1580 however, nearly all virginals were [[rectangular]], the Italian models often having an outer case like harpsichords from that country. There are very few surviving English virginals, all of them late. They generally follow the Flemish construction, but with a [[Vault (architecture)|vaulted]] lid.

===Muselars===
[[File:Johannes Vermeer - Zittende Klavecimbelspeelster (1673-1675).jpg|upright|thumb|''Woman at a Muselar'', by [[Johannes Vermeer]], {{circa}} 1672 ([[National Gallery, London]]). Note the keyboard placed to the right.]]
[[File:Muselaar.jpg|thumb|A typical muselar of the [[Ruckers]] school. Note the keyboard on the right of the case.]]

Muselars (also ''muselaar'') were made only in northern Europe. Here, the keyboard is placed right of centre and the strings are plucked about one-third the way along their sounding length. This gives a warm, rich, resonant sound, with a strong fundamental and weak overtones. However, this comes at a price: the jacks and keys for the left hand are inevitably placed in the middle of the instrument's [[Sound board (music)|soundboard]], with the result that any mechanical noise from these is amplified. In addition to mechanical noise, from the string vibrating against the descending [[plectrum]], the central plucking point in the bass makes repetition difficult, because the motion of the still-sounding string interferes with the ability of the plectrum to connect again. An 18th-century commentator (Van Blankenberg, 1739) wrote that muselars "grunt in the bass like young pigs". Thus the muselar was better suited to [[chord (music)|chord]]-and-[[melody]] music without complex left hand parts. The muselar could also be provided with a stop called the ''harpichordium'' (also ''arpichordium''), which consists of lead hooks being lightly applied against the ends of the bass strings in such a manner that the string vibrating against the hook produces a buzzing, snarling sound.

Muselars were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and their ubiquity has been compared to that of the upright piano in the early 20th century, but like other types of virginals they fell out of use in the 18th century.

===Ottavini===
Both Italian and northern schools produced a miniature virginals called the {{lang|it|ottavino}}. {{lang|it|Ottavini}} were pitched an octave higher than the larger instrument. In the Flemish tradition these were often – perhaps always – sold together with a large virginals, to which the {{lang|it|ottavino}} could be coupled (see '''[[#Double virginals|Double virginals]]''' below). In the Italian tradition, an {{lang|it|ottavino}} was usually a separate instrument of its own, being fitted in its own outer case, just like larger Italian instruments.

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Menegoni Ottavino, 1689.png|1689 Menegoni Ottavino from the Hans Adler keyboard collection.[http://hansadlercollection.blogspot.ca/2012/12/menegoni-virginal-or-ottavino.html]
File:Rectangular Octave Virginal MET DT10869.jpg|[[Rectangular Octave Virginal]], {{circa|1600}}, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].
</gallery>

===Double virginals===
The [[Flanders|Flemish]] [[school (discipline)|school]], in particular the [[Ruckers]] family, produced a special type of virginals known as ''Mother and Child'' ({{lang|nl|moeder und kind}}). This consisted of two instruments in one: a normal virginals (either spinet or muselar) with one 8′ register, and an {{lang|it|ottavino}} with one 4′ register. The smaller {{lang|it|ottavino}} was stored (rather like a drawer) under the [[sound board (music)|soundboard]] next to the keyboard of the larger instrument, and could be withdrawn and played as a separate keyboard instrument. However, the two instruments could also be coupled together, the {{lang|it|ottavino}} being placed over the strings of the larger virginals (once the jackrail was removed), so that the [[Harpsichord#Mechanism|jacks]] of the latter passed through a slot in the bottom of the {{lang|it|ottavino}}. The jacks of the larger instrument now activated the keys of the {{lang|it|ottavino}}, so that both instruments sounded simultaneously, giving a more brilliant effect.

Among the instruments in the inventory of [[Henry VIII of England]], drawn up by Philip Van Wilder in 1553, there are mentions of "twoo pair of double virginalles", "one new pair of double virginalles", and other obscure references. These predate the earliest extant Mother and Child virginal by 30 years (the 1581 Hans Ruckers),<ref name=Obrien347>O'Brien 1990, 347</ref><ref name=Kottick490>Kottick 2003, 490</ref> and the earliest known double manual harpsichords by about 60 years. The term may have referred to the number of stops on the instrument, or perhaps its range.<ref name=Hubbard136>Hubbard 1967, 136</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Double Virginal MET DP165270a.jpg|Double virginal (1600) by Lodewijck Grouwels ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art|MET]] 89.4.1196).
File:Double Virginal MET DP332579.jpg|Double virginal (1581) by Hans Ruckers the Elder. ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art|MET]] 29.90)
File:Hans Ruckers early 17th century stand alone virginal.png|Hans Ruckers' stand-alone virginal (1610) from the Hans Adler keyboard collection.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hansadlercollection.blogspot.ca/2012/12/hans-rueckers-epinette.html|title = The Hans Adler Collection of Early Instruments: Hans/Andreas Rueckers Epinette, Virginal or Harpsichord}}</ref>
</gallery>