string length and compass
becomes much more convincing if we assume that the Italian builders
abandoned the practice of making transposing harpsichords about the same
time that the Ruckers family stopped employing the transposing lower
manual. In the quotation previously given, Querinus van Blankenburg
tells us that the Ruckers did not make transposing instruments later
than the 1630's. Of the 10 dated Italian instruments with the keyboard
extended to _f'''_, only three were made after the third decade of the
17th century. Each of these has a shorter pitch _C_ string than any of
the seven earlier instruments. These three harpsichords, dated 1654,
1658, and 1666, are accordingly considered nontransposing instruments,
with the extra treble keys representing an actual extension of the
upward range. The six undated instruments with _f'''_ in the treble are
classified as transposing instruments because of their pitch _C_ lengths
and are accordingly believed to have been made before about 1635.

[Illustration: Figure 12.--TYPICAL DECORATIVE DEVICE, known as rose,
that appeared in soundboards of virginals and harpsichords.]

The 33 instruments on which this study is based are classified in the
list on page 107. They are grouped according to whether the highest key
is _f'''_ or _c'''_, with the exceptions of the three harpsichords
mentioned in the preceding paragraph and three instruments that go only
to _a''_. That the three instruments ending on _a''_ belong with the
nontransposing group is indicated by their string lengths.

The listing gives additional information about each example. String
lengths of instruments having two registers are for the shorter of the
two pitch _C_ strings.

Information has been secured on two Italian virginals which were not
included in the tabulation. Their measurements are completely at
variance with the pattern consistently set by the other 33 examples
studied. One, made by Giovanni Domenico in 1556, is in the Skinner
collection; it has a pitch _C_ string 14-1/16" in length and an apparent
compass of _C/E_ to _c'''_. The other, with the same apparent compass
and a 7-1/2" pitch _C_ string, is at Yale University. Whether these
instruments are exceptional in terms of the pitch to which they were
tuned, the tension which was applied to the strings, or the thickness
and weight of the strings themselves, has not been determined.

The average of the pitch _C_ lengths of the transposing instrument