DULCIMER, the prototype of the pianoforte (q.v.), an in strument of great antiquity derived originally from the East, consisting of a horizontal sound-chest over which are stretched a varying number of wire strings set in vibration by strokes of little sticks or hammers. The dulcimer differed from the psal terium or psaltery chiefly in the manner of playing, the latter having the strings plucked by means of fingers or plectrum, a distinction the importance of which was fully recognized when the invention of the pianoforte had become a matter of history. It was then perceived that the psalterium in which the strings were plucked, and the dulcimer in which they were struck, when provided with keyboards, gave rise to two distinct families of instruments, differing essentially in tone quality, in technique, and in capabilities. The evolution of the psalterium stopped at the harpsichord, that of the dulcimer gave us the pianoforte. The dulcimer was very popular all over Europe throughout the middle ages.
The pantaleon, a double dulcimer, named after the inventor, Pantaleon Hebenstreit of Eisleben, a violinist, had two sound boards, 185 strings, one scale of overspun catgut and one of wire. Hebenstreit travelled to Paris with his monster dulcimer in I 705 and played before Louis XIV., who baptized it Pantaloon. Quantz and Quirin of Blankenburg both gave descriptions of the instrument.