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[18]
HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING?
UNDERSTANDING SEVENTEENTH-
CENTURY DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLS.
Michael Fleming
This article is intended to improve understanding of exactly what early English
writers meant when they discussed viols. I have argued elsewhere that it is
important to avoid assuming that aspects of viols and viol-making were consistent
in different countries at any particular time, or in one country over a 1ong
period. 1 Because languages are constantly evolving, this is particularly important
when considering the use of common words and technical terms. The following
discussions essentially concern seventeenth-century England, though
some aspects may prove to be more widely applicable. The first two sections
are about the size of viols, while the third explores the meaning of the word
'old' when applied to viols and other instruments.
1. Christopher Simpson's 'ordinary' size of division viol.
In a recent issue of this journal Tilman Muthesius argued that the Talbot
manuscript, extant instruments and other sources suggest certain specific sizes
for English viols. 2 I generally support this, and I intend here to eliminate
absolutely the idea that English inches were shorter in the seventeenth century
than today, and to clarify the size of a division viol. 3
The English inch, foot and yard were standardised centuries before viols
reached this island. The standardisation of some English measurements 4 was
guaranteed by the Magna Carta in 1215, 5 and the principal linear measures used
in Tudor and Stuart England were fixed by statute in 1324. 6 Units of length
were stable and consistent throughout the country, and Tudor standards were
among 'the most precise and sophisticated in Europe.' 7 In medieval England
1 M. Fleming, Viol-Making in England c.1580-1660 (Ph.D., Open University, 2001).
2 T. Muthesius, 'The English Chest of Viols', Chelys 28 (2000), 20-27.
3 It is unlikely that any viol was intended or used exclusively for playing divisions so the
term 'division viol' is best understood not as a type of instrument but as a description of an
instrument being used for a particular purpose. This also applies to the term 'lyra viol'.
4 See the very comprehensive survey in R. E. Zupko, British Weights and Measures: A
History from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century (Wisconsin and London, 1977), especially ch. 3
5 Magna Carta, Clause 35, cited in H. A. Klein, The Science of Measurement: A Historical
Survey (New York, 1974, repr. 1988), 30.
6 R. Zupko, A Dictionary of English Weights and Measures From Anglo-Saxon Times to the
Nineteenth Century (Madison, Milwaukee & London, 1968). The consistency of units of length
contrasts with measurement of capacity, where there were many local variations. It also
contrasts with measurement of length between and within other countries, especially the
German-speaking lands and Italy. See G. O'Brien, 'The use of simple geometry and the local
unit of measurement in the design of Italian stringed keyboard instruments: an aid to
attribution and to organological analysis', GSJ 52 (1999), 108-71; M. Tiella, 'Some old Italian
units of measurement', FoMRHIQ (July 2000), 40. Fourteen different international standards
for the ell are given in Zupko, British Weights and Measures, Appendix D, 170, ranging from
22.30 inches to 39.37 inches. Others are given in Klein, Science of Measurement, 57, ranging
from 24.7 inches to 54 inches.
7 Zupko, British Weights and Measures, 75.