RT, your sources may be quite accurate as to the invention of drawing wire in Germany, but that doesn't say anything about other places. And why do you separate the drawing of "wire" from steel wire? Steel is a form of iron, but bronze and brass are not. Are you saying that the drawing of any metal for wire was invented in Germany in the 14th C., or only a specific metal. Either way you are wrong. Again you are looking at only European sources. There is evidence, which I can't document tonight as it is late, that metal wires were used even in the ancient Egyptian "proto harps".
The development of metal technology, and musical instruments, has not been an entirely linear process. Things are lost, then found again. Or are extant in one civilization while unknown in another. I stand by my statement that the early Celtic (and we Celts do prefer the capital letter) harps were wire strung, although I can't say how they made them. But I'm not going to try to get the early writings of the old legends out tonight (those writings being of the 9th and 10th centuries about earlier events). By the way, you have spoken of my "inexactitude" when I've used a generic term. May I ask how you can refer to Germany in the 1300s? Neither France nor Germany, as we know them today, existed then. Dukedoms and states, some within the HRE and some on the fringes and giving tribute. And some quite independent. That which we call Germany became a nation in the 19th C.. I do not accuse you of fallacy, I accept the shorthand of calling it Germany because it was within the bounds of modern Germany. But you are inexact. Best, Jon > Drawing wire was invented in Germany in the mid 1300's, drawn steel 1632. > Beaten wire technology of before the 14th century precludes the possibility > of metal stings on celtic harps until Renaissance (counted from Dante, > Giotto & Co). > RT To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
