The «Enigmatic» Italian Musical Instrument of the Early 15th Century From the Metropolitan Museum Collection (in the Context of the West — East Interactions)

The article is focused on possible prototypes of unique instrument from the Metropolitan Museum collection identified as mandora (catalogue number 64.101.1409) and two similar exemplars also of Italian origin, rebecchino (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Sam 433) and violetta (currently preserved in the chapel of the St. Catherine [Santa Caterina de’ Vigri] church in Bologna). Data on historical instruments of Asia as well as European 17^th–18^th centuries iconographic sources fixing music realities of the Crimean khanate and the Safavid empire are involved, bringing the author to conclusion that a common instrument of the Crimean khanate, now out of use, could be considered as a prototype of the examined one. This Crimean instrument still not investigated in modern organology was a modification of a bow kobuz spread widely among the Turk peoples of the Kypchak-Nogay linguistic group. The instrument could be brought to Italy (where its Europeanized form was produced then) due to close connections of the Crimean khanate with the Venetian Republic, later with the Genoese Republic which lasted till the mid of the 15^th century.