well
played and humoured." Giovanni Maria Artusi[13] of Bologna, writing at
the end of the 16th century, devotes much space to the cornet,
explaining in detail the three kinds of tonguing used with the
instrument. By tonguing is understood a method of articulation into
the mouthpiece of flute, cornet a pistons or trumpet, of certain
syllables which add brilliance to the tone. Artusi advocates (1) for
the guttural effect, _ler, ler, ler, der, ler, der, ler_; _ter, ler,
ter_; _ler, ter, ler_; (2) for the tongue effect, _tere, tere, tere_;
(3) for the dental effect, _teche, teche, teche_, used by those who
wish to strike terror into the hearts of the hearers--an effect,
however, which offends the ear. A clue to the popularity of the
instrument during the middle ages may perhaps be found in Artusi's
remark that this instrument is the most apt in imitating the human
voice, but that it is very difficult and fatiguing to play; the
musician, he adds elsewhere, should adopt an instrument to imitate the
voice as much as possible, such as the cornetto and the trombone. He
mentions two players in Venice, Il Cavaliero del Cornetto and M.
Girolamo da Udine, who excelled in the art of playing the cornet.

Being derived from the horn of an animal through which lateral holes
had been pierced, the curved cornet was probably the earlier, and when
the instrument came to be copied in metal and in wood the straight
cornet was the result of an attempt to simplify the construction. The
evolution probably took place in Asia Minor, where tubes with conical
bore were the rule, and the instrument was thence introduced into
Europe. A straight _Zinck_, having a grotesque animal's head at the
bell-end, and six holes visible, is pictured in a miniature of the
11th century.[14] What appears to be precisely the same kind of
instrument, although differing widely in reality, the chaunter being
reed-blown, is to be found in illuminated MSS. as the chaunter of the
bagpipe, as for example in a royal roll of Henry III. at the British
Museum,[15] where it occurs twice played by a man on stilts. The
grotesque was probably added to the chaunter in imitation of that on
the straight _Zinck_. Two _stille Zincken_ or _cornetti muti_ are
among the musical instruments represented in the triumphal procession
of the emperor Maximilian I.[16] (d. 1519), designed at his command by
H. Burgmair under t