(It.).
A term used by Nicola Vicentino (L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica, 1555) to designate a harpsichord equipped with many divided keys, or even a second manual, in order to permit playing in his reconstructions of the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic genera of the ancient Greeks. Later writers have also applied the term to harpsichords having many divided keys for the simpler purpose of playing in good intonation in remote tonalities. Vicentino also built an arciorgano for the same purpose (Descrizione dell’arciorgano, 1561; for illustration see ..\Frames/F007182.htmlnicola Vincentino, fig.2. An arcicembalo with eight keyboards, dividing the octave into 17 parts, was invented by Fabio Colonna. See also Enharmonic keyboard.
EDWIN M. RIPIN