esius's fanciful etymology of the name by showing it to be nothing but
the French word _fagot_, and that it was applied because the instrument
consists of two or more "flutes," bound or _fagotees_ together. There is no
evidence that the phagotus contained a reed, which would account for
Mersenne calling the pipes flutes. Mersenne's statements thus seem to
uphold the theory that Afranio's phagotus was only a double _flute a
colonne_ with bellows. Evidence is at hand that in 1555 a contrabass wind
instrument was well known as fagotto. In the catalogue of the musical
instruments belonging to the Flemish band of Marie de Hongrie in Spain, we
find the following: "Ala dicha princesa y al dicho matoto dos ynstrumentos
de musica contrabaxos, que llaman fagotes, metidos en dos caos redondas
como parece por el dicho entrego."[10] Sigmund Schnitzer[11] of Nuremberg
(d. 1578), a maker of wind instruments who attained considerable notoriety,
has been [v.03 p.0497] named as the probable author of the transformation
of pommer into bassoon.

We learn from an historical work of the 18th century, that he was renowned
"almost everywhere" as a maker of _fagotte_ of extraordinary size, of
skilful workmanship and pure intonation, speaking easily. Schnitzer's
instruments were so highly appreciated not only all over Germany, but also
in France and Italy, that he was kept continually at work producing
_fagotte_ for lovers of music.[12]

An earlier chronicler of the artistic celebrities and craftsmen of
Nuremberg, Johann Neudorfer, writing in 1549,[13] names Sigmund Schnitzer
merely as _Pfeifenmacher und Stadtpfeifer._ Had he been also noted as an
inventor of a new form of instrument, the fellow-citizen and contemporary
chronicler would not have failed to note the fact. If Schnitzer had been
the first to reduce the great length of the bass pommer by doubling the
tube back upon itself, he would hardly have been handed down to posterity
as the clever craftsman _who made fagottos of extraordinary size_;
Doppelmaier, who chronicles in these eulogistic terms, wrote nearly two
centuries after the supposed invention of the fagotto, the value of which
was realized later by retrospection.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Old English double curtail (before 1688). (From
Harl MS 2034 in Brit. Mus.)]

An explanation may perhaps be found in Eisel's statement about the
_Deutscher Basson_, which he distinguishes from the _Basson_ (our bassoon).
"The _Deutsche Basson