Spinet

The spinet (either from it. Spina = " thorn" or by the Venetian instrument maker Giovanni Spinetti ( 1500) ) is a trapezoid- shaped, three-to five-sided small size of the harpsichord. Characteristic of the spinet, the oblique laterally extending for keyboard strings, which allows a space-saving design. A spinet is therefore much smaller than a harpsichord and, unlike the latter, a house and a concert instrument. It belongs to the Kiel instruments in which the strings of a keel ( plectrum ) over a served by the keyboard Zupfmechanik be plucked. It is equipped only with a manual, and usually only with a register in the 8'- position. The spinet was particularly widespread in Italy and Germany from the 16th to the 18th century. A special form represents the octave-spinet

The term spinet is also a form of home organ, see Hammond organ.