Virginal, Cypress case with keys and decoration of hardstones and gems, Annibale Rossi, Milan, Italian, 1577, the gems added in the 19th century.

The virginal is seven-sided, with an inset keyboard on the front side, flanked by panels veneered in ebony set with panels of ivory strapwork and gems in repeating patterns. The jack-rail is held in position by slots modelled to resemble the mouths of a monster and a lion, and is decorated with four carved ivory putti along the top playing musical instruments. One putto playes a lute, another a hurdy-gurdy, another a viol and another a lyra da braccio (a Renaissance violin).
The front side of the jack rail and the front-facing inner edges of the case also have panels decorated with ivory and gems. The sides and back of the case are undecorated.

The keyboard has natural keys of ivory set with lapis lazuli and jasper of various colours, with carved ivory front edges, embellished with black and gold paint and set with pearls. The accidental keys have lapis lazuli slips with ivory surrounds set in ebony. The keyboard has a range of fifty notes, C/E-f3. The horizontal panel above the keyboard has applied boxwood masks set with pearls, and satyrs with splayed legs, in the manner of Cornelis Bos (1506-56). The decoration is strongly influenced by the strapwork ornament first developed by Rosso Fiorentino in the Galerie François I at Fontainebleau (1535-9), and widely circulated through prints by Bos, Lorenz Störer and others. A style of ornament which originated in Italy this returned there by means of engravings printed in France, the Netherlands and Germany. At each end of the keyboard stands a boxwood statuette, Venus and Cupid on the left and Mars on the right. The soundboard contains a wooden rose of exceptionally large diameter (145 mm), carved in relief with strapwork cartouches, winged grotesques in the style of Bos and a bust of a putto in the centre.

This is a very early example of pietre dure furniture decoration (the keyboard and beneath some of the gemstones) and a rare example of a musical instrument decorated with stone. The instrument is decorated with a total of 1,928 stones: 857 turquoises, 361 pearls, 103 lapis lazuli, 28 amethysts, 58 topazes, 6 carnelians, 40 emeralds, 32 saphires, 117 garnets, 242 small garnets and rubies, 4 crystals, 9 agates, 52 jaspers, and 19 small jaspers and agates. However many of these appear to be much later additions. Only the stones in the keyboard and some of the lapis lazuli panels are certainly part of the original scheme.

During conservation in 2012 ebony inlay was found underneath some of the applied ivory, and and inlaid jasper panel under one of the rectangular pieces of lapis lazuli, suggesting that the decoration of the virginal was altered after the virginal was completed. At present it is not clear when the decoration was altered, nor how much of the decoration on the case was added later. However it is probably that the ivory cartouches and the gems which stud the case were added in the mid 19th century, possibly in Paris. The pins which attach the silver-mounted gems are of a type which was not made before about 1830. Investigation also revealed that earlier inlays had been removed and later stones glued on in their place.

The gems are applied to the case using several techniques. Many are set in silver, with closed-back settings with a metal pin soldered to the back before the gem was mounted, for attaching it to the carcase. The 'rub-over' settings have a silver rim or 'collet' all the way round, which is burnished down around the edges to hold the gem tightly in place. The gem sits on a small shelf within the collet raising it up above the surface of the instrument. The gems that are set within the ivory cartouches do not have silver settings, and most are probably glued to the surface. The rock crystal gems were painted on the backs with red colour lined with foil, to imitate rubies or spinels. Through the semi-transparent crystal small pins can be seen, glued into placed in drilled holes, for attaching these gems to the wood.

The tiny pearls are a mixture of halved seed pearls and 'blister pearls', the latter cut from protuberances inside the mother-of-pearl shells.

There is no longer a separate outer case but this extremely elaborate instrument must certainly have had one. The ivory putti standing along the jack rail would not have fitted into the case and close examination reveals that these are later additions.

This virginal, made in 1577, is the last known instrument made by Annibale Rossi and is a very early example of pietre dure (hardstone) decoration, an art practised in Rome from about 1550 and Florence from 1588. A contemporary account mentioning Rossi appeared as early as 1595: 'Annibale Rosso was worthy of praise, as he was the first to modernize virginals into the shape in which we now see them. This skilful maker constructed among other works a virginal [clavicordo] of uncommon beauty and excellence, with the keys all of precious stones and with the most elegant ornaments. This instrument was sold for 500 crowns, and is now in the possession of the learned and refined nobleman Signor Carlo Trivulzio. Ferrante (Rosso), his son, is following in the footsteps of his father in all respects and continuing to make improvements in clavichords, thereby making a name for himself' (Paolo Morigi's 'La Nobilità de Milano' 1595, original Italian text in Carl Engel, 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum', London 1870. p.53.

Given the vagueness of terms then used for keyboard instruments, Trivulzio's 'clavicordo' could well have been this virginal. The fact that such an instrument was mentioned in a book on the nobility of Milan clearly demonstrates that such an elaborate instrument would have added greatly to the status of the owner.

But for the contemporary reference to him, Rossi would remain a very obscure figure. Also known as 'De Roxis' and 'Rosso'. A virginal maker in Milan, the earliest recorded date is 1542, and he died between 1577 and 1595 (Philip James, 'Early Keyboard Instruments' 1930, which records four other examples). His son, Ferrante, carried on his father's business; surviving examples of his work date from 1580 to 1590. The V&A owns another instrument by Annibale Rossi, (Museum no. 156-1869), dated 1555, (ie. 22 years earlier) which is far less ornate. The jewelled virginal was part of the collections of Antoine Louis Clapisson (1808-66), a French composer, and while being exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 was bought by Henry Cole of the V&A in 1869 for £1,200, a price unprecedented for any musical instrument previously purchased by the museum.

Terminology.
Terminology for virginals and spinets is often unclear. This instrument has been until recently described as a 'spinet', but is actually of a type described by musicologists today (2011) as a 'virginal'. Spinets and virginals, along with harpsichords, are stringed keyboard instruments in which the strings have a plucking mechanism rather than a striking mechanism as in a piano. The term 'virginal' was used in England to denote all plucked instruments well into the 17th century, and some writers still use it to denote smaller instruments in rectangular cases, and use 'spinet' to mean a pentagonal or polygonal instrument. The origin of the term 'virginal' is obscure but might be associated with female performers.

In present usage the term 'virginal' applies to instruments with strings running at right angles to the keys, and with long bass strings at the front. The term 'spinet' denotes instruments with strings at an oblique angle and with long bass strings at the back. The spinet is a small version of the harpsichord, but with only one set of keys. Both instruments were originally portable and were laid on a table top for playing.

Virginals were first made in early 16th century Italy, and were made in a variety of shapes, from rectangular to polygonal, and are distinguished from northern European examples by having wholly or partly projecting keyboards. Italian virginals were generally made of thin cypress wood, topped with elegant mouldings, complemented by another moulding at the bottom. The case joints are mitred. Virtually the whole musical literature of the period can be played on virginal, which was often used for domestic music-making, and had a surprisingly loud sound. (For fuller account of virginals and spinets, see 'The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments'.)

Social context
Flora Dennis, in 'At Home in Renaissance Italy', describes how domestic music-making was transformed between 1400 and 1600, particularly after the first printed music appeared in Italy in 1501. New music appropriate for a domestic performance emerged, along with new types of musical instruments, which were produced in ever greater numbers. By the end of the sixteenth century even artisans might possess a small keyboard instrument.

Keyboard instruments could be highly ornamental; virginals were often painted, and people at the highest social levels would collect them. There was a tendency towards room specialisation, resulting in the Renaissance 'music room' (stanza de'suoli, or studio di musica). An inventory of the possessions of the Florentine Niccolò Gaddi at his death in 1591 lists a music room containing thirty-eight instruments. Fra Sabba da Castiglione recommended furnishing the house with musical instruments, 'because such instruments as these greatly delight the ears...and they also greatly please the eye' (see 'At Home in Renaissance Italy, ch.16 note 29: Sabba da Castinglione, Ricordi, quoted in Barocchi (1978), III, p.2919).

Of all musical instruments, those with keyboards were the grandest, and an ability to play them well was considered a princely virtue. Even more so if the owner possessed an elaborately decorated instrument like this one. However, the actual makers are mostly obscure figures, only known to us from signed and dated surviving examples of their work. Therefore it was an exceptional accolade for Annibale Rossi (active 1542-1577) of Milan in northern Italy, who signed the present virginal, to be praised in Paolo Morigi's work, La Nobilità di Milano (1595): there he was said to have made an instrument 'with the keys all of precious stones' for a 'learned and refined nobleman'. It is possible that this is the instrument he described.

Examination prior to display during 2011 and 2012 revealed evidence that an original more restrained scheme of decoration was augmented at a later date, probably in the nineteenth century, with more panels of lapis lazuli, the ivory cartouches and the addition of the silver-mounted gems.

809-1869