SAMBUCA, SAMBUTE, SAMBUUT, SAMBUE, SAMBUQUE

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 114 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR

SAMBUCA, SAMBUTE, SAMBUUT, SAMBUE, SAMBUQUE , an ancient stringed

instrument

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

of Asiatic origin generally supposed to be a small triangular harp of shrill tone (Arist. Quint. Meib. ii. p. 1o1). The sambuca was probably identical with the Phoenician sabecha and the Aramaic sabka, the Greek form being vaj.Bbxn. The sabka is mentioned in Dan. iii. 5, 10, 15, where it is erroneously translated sackbut. The sambuca has been compared to the military

engine

ENGINE
ENGINE (Lat. ingenium)

of the same name by some classical writers;

Polybius

POLYBIUS (c. 204–122 B.C.)

likens it to a rope ladder; others describe it as boat-shaped. Among the musical instruments known, the Egyptian nanga best answers to these descriptions. These definitions are doubtless responsible for the medieval drawings representing the sambuca as a kind of tambourine,' for Isidor elsewhere defines the

symphonia

SYMPHONIA (Gr. o-vµcfrmvla)

as a tambourine. During the middle ages the word sambuca was applied (1) to a stringed

instrument

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

about which little can be discovered, (2) to a wind instrument made from the

wood

of the elder tree (sambucus). In an old glossary (Fundgruben, i. 368), article vloyt (

flute

FLUTE

), the sambuca is said to be a kind of

flute

FLUTE

. " Sambuca vel sambucus est quaedam arbor parva et mollis, unde haec sambuca est quaedam species symphoniae qui fit de ilia arbore." Isidor of Seville (Etym. 2. 20) describes it as " Sambuca in musicis species est symphoniarum. Est enim genus ligni fragilis unde et tibiae componuntur. " In a glossary by Papias of Lombardy (c. 1053), first printed at

Milan

MILAN
MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

in 1476, the sambuca is described as a cithara, which in that century was generally glossed " harp," i.e. " Sambuca, genus cytherae rusticae. "
In Tristan (9563-72) the knight is enumerating to King Marke all the instruments upon which he can play, the sambiut being the last mentioned:
" Waz ist daz, lieber mann?
Daz veste Seitspiel daz ich kann."
In a Latin-French glossary (M.S. at Montpelier, H. 1ro, fol. 212 v.) Psalterium = sambue. During the later middle ages sambuca was often translated sackbut in the vocabularies, whether merely from the phonetic similarity of the two words has not. yet been established. The

great

GREAT

Boulogne Psalter (xi. c.) contains, among other fanciful instruments which are evidently intended to illustrate the equally vague and fanciful descriptions of instruments in the apocryphal

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of S. Jerome, ad Dardanum, a Sambuca, which resembles a somewhat primitive sackbut (q.v.) without the bell

joint

JOINT (through Fr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join)

. It is reproduced by Coussemaker, Lacroix and Viollet-le-Duc, and has given rise to endless discussions without leading to any satisfactory solution. (K. S.)

End of Article: SAMBUCA, SAMBUTE, SAMBUUT, SAMBUE, SAMBUQUE

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SAC_SAR/SAMBUCA_SAMBUTE_SAMBUUT_SAMBUE.html">
SAMBUCA, SAMBUTE, SAMBUUT, SAMBUE, SAMBUQUE
</a>

(Previous)
SAMBOURNE, EDWARD LINLEY (1844-1910)

(Next)
SAMLAND

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email