clavicytheria

English[edit]

clavicytheria

plural of clavicytherium.
- 1867 July, “The Piano in the United States”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XX, number CXVII, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 124 Tremont Street, →OCLC, page 86, column 1:
  [W]e find indications of a keyed instrument after the year 1300, called the Clavicytherium, or keyed cithara. […] The clavichord and manichord, which we read of in [Wolfgang Amadeus] Mozart's letters, were only improved and better-made clavicytheria.
- 1978, Edward L[eon] Kottick, “A Short History of the Harpsichord”, in The Harpsichord Owner’s Guide: A Manual for Buyers and Owners, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, published 1992, →ISBN, page 34, column 3:
  Clavicytheria, or upright harpsichords, were also made in Italy. Although they probably were built almost everywhere, the evidence of the extant instruments indicates that they were more common here than elsewhere.