Sambuca (instrument)
The sambuca (also sambute, sambiut, sambue, sambuque, or sambuke) was an ancient stringed instrument of Asiatic origin. However, many other instruments have also been called a "sambuca".
The original sambuca is generally supposed to have been a small triangular harp of shrill tone., probably identical with the Phoenician sabecha and the Aramaic sabbekā, the Greek form being σαμβύκη or σαμβύχη.
The sambuca has been compared to the siege engine of the same name by some classical writers; Polybius likens it to a rope ladder; others describe it as boat-shaped. Among the musical instruments known, the Egyptian nanga best answers to these descriptions, which are doubtless responsible for the medieval drawings representing the sambuca as a kind of tambourine, for Isidore of Seville elsewhere defines the symphonia as a tambourine.
The sabka is mentioned in the Bible ( verses 5 to 15). In the King James Bible it is erroneously translated as "sackbut".
During the Middle Ages the word "sambuca" was applied to:
In an old glossary article on vloyt (flute), the sambuca is said to be a kind of flute:
Sambuca vel sambucus est quaedam arbor parva et mollis, unde haec sambuca est quaedam species symphoniae qui fit de illa arbore.
sambuca (Latin singular sambucus) are soft and pliant trees, and from the sambucus is named one of the symphonia family of instruments, which is made from [the wood of] these trees.
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