Plate XXXVII. Lituus, Roman Cavalry. Buccina, Roman Infantry. Cornet, With Two Valves. Trumpets
The Roman Lituus, the antique straight instrument with the curved end, is drawn from a reproduction in bronze of the original, found in the tomb of a warrior discovered in 1827, at Cervetri, the Etruscan Caere, and preserved in the Museum of the Vatican. The lituus took its name from the augur’s staff, which it resembled in shape; it belonged to the cavalry of the Roman Empire. It produces the following proper notes or natural harmonics—
the seventh being flatter than the note which occurs in our modern musical scale. The fundamental
[audio/mpeg] which the length of this tube—5 feet 4 inches—would give, cannot be produced. It was from a minute description of the original instrument, by Signor Alessandro Kraus junior of Florence, that Mr. Victor Mahillon was enabled to make this interesting reproduction of an instrument which appears to be the only antique trumpet known. The curved Buccina is from another reproduction by him of an instrument preserved in the Museum at Naples, and found in excavating Pompeii. It was passed under the left arm of the executant and over his right shoulder, in a manner easily adopted by a foot-soldier. This Buccina is in unison with the horn in G, and has a bugle quality of tone. Its notes are—
the seventh and eleventh harmonics not being in tune with the corresponding notes in our received scales, and the fundamental being again impracticable. To sound the lituus and buccina is to awaken the echoes of the ancient past; but, whether blown by Roman or Greek or Egyptian, we may be sure the harmonic division of a column of air into vibrating sections knows no change, and was the same then as now.
The Cornet with two valves shows one of the earliest adaptations of the now dominant pistons as introduced by C. Saxe of Brussels.
One Trumpet, by Johann Wilhelm Haas of Nuremberg, is of obsolete make; the other, also by Haas, is curved in half-circles to facilitate the production of stopped notes, and is curiously engraved.
These five instruments belong to the Brussels Conservatoire Royal.