A double Italian harpsichord with three 8' stops

For this instrument, build in 1696 in Florence by Antonio Migliai and lost during the second World War, we have, unfortunately, no iconographic evidence.However, a description given by Curt Sachs in " Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumente bei der Staatlichen Hochshule fur Musik zu Berlin ", Berlin, 1922, together with a single manual harpsichord of the same maker, dated 1702 ( Hayer collection, Leipzig ), provided useful clues to its reconstruction. As to the position of the wrestplank bridge for the third 8', we based our instrument on the Fabi Bolognese dated 1677 ( Conservatory Museum, Paris ), an instrument with two 8' stops but with two wrestplank bridges to make of the second 8' a " tiorbino " stop.
The data given by Sachs, is practically identical to that for the Leipzig Migliai:
The 1696 cembalo is longer ( 260 cm. ) to gain room for the second keyboard 5 cm. wider and the case height 25,5 cm.
The inscription on the front board " Antonius de Migliais Florentinus fecit anno MDCLXXXXVI " is hand written in golden characters with arabesques.
The range FF GG AA - c5 with the first splitted key for FF GG.
The two pieces wrestplank is made of walnut for the front piece bearing the tuning pins and spruce for the remaining part, the top is veneered with cypress.
In contrast to the Leipzig cembalo the sides are of cypress and not cedar, the soundboard is of spruce and the jackrail blocks are scroll shaped.
These last factors, however, are comparatively insignificant since they could have been changed by the maker on the basis of a momentary choice.
All of this information together with our experience, has enabled us to re-create a 3x8' double manual harpsichord by one of the most pre-eminent " cembalari " in the history of Italian harpsichord making.
Apart from the Migliai we find the 3x8' disposition in two harpsichords by Mondini dated respectively 1687 and 1688 ( Inventario mediceo, Florence, 1700 ) and described as " un cimbalo………a tre registri cioè due principali e tiorbino unisoni ". In two Anonimous (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ), and in a cembalo by Franco dated 1757 ( Hayer Collection, Leipzig ).
In our view this cembalo, rich in sound and color, with black and white original keyboards, is the ideal instrument for a new and different approach to the interpretation of Italian music from the second half of XVIIth to the first half of XVIIIth Century.