The bumbulum or bombulum was a musical instrument described in an apocryphal letter of St. Jerome to Caius Posthumus Dardanus, and illustrated in a series of illuminated manuscripts of the 10th to the 11th century, together with other instruments described in the same letter. The name may also be transcribed bunibula or bunibulum.. Early manuscripts include the ''Psalter of Emmeran'', 10th century, described by

Martin Gerbert Martin Gerbert (11 August 1720 – 3 May 1793), was a German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on 12 (or 11 or 13) August 1720. Life He ...

, who gives a few illustrations from it; the Cotton manuscript of '' Tiberius C. VI'' in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, 11th century; the famous '' Boulogne Psalter'', A.D. 1000; and the '' Angers Psalter'', 9th century. In the Cotton manuscript the instrument consists of an angular frame, from which depends by a chain a rectangular metal plate having twelve bent arms attached in two rows of three on each side, one above the other. This is origin of the four sources cited above (Psalter of Emmeran, Cotton manuscript, Boulogne Psalter, Angers Psalter). The arms appear to terminate in small rectangular bells or plates, and it is supposed that the standard frame was intended to be shaken like a

sistrum A sistrum (plural: sistra or (in Latin) sīstra; from the Greek ''seistron'' of the same meaning; literally "that which is being shaken", from ''seiein'', "to shake") is a musical instrument of the percussion family, a form of rattle, used mo ...

in order to set the bells jangling.

Sebastian Virdung Sebastian Virdung (born c. 1465) was a German composer and theorist on musical instruments. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. He studied in Heidelberg as a scholar of Johannes von Soest at the chapel of the ducal court. ...

gives illustrations of these instruments of Jerome, and among them of the one called bumbulum in the Cotton Manuscript, which Virdung calls ''Fistula Hieronimi''. The general outline is the same, but instead of metal arms there is the same number of bent pipes with conical bore. Virdung explains, following the apocryphal letter, that the stand resembling the draughtsman's square represents the Holy Cross, the rectangular object dangling therefrom signifies

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

on the Cross, and the twelve pipes are the twelve apostles. Virdung's illustration, probably copied from an older work in manuscript, conforms more closely to the text of the letter than does the instrument in the Cotton manuscript. There is no evidence whatever of the actual existence of such an instrument during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, with the exception of this series of fanciful pictures drawn to illustrate an instrument known from description only.

Manuscripts illustrating Saint Jerome's ''Instruments of Hieronymus'' or imitating those illustrations

St Jerome wrote a letter to Dardanus (a Gallic Christian), to explain pagan and Christian musical instruments that are mentioned in the Bible and their allegorical meanings. The letter was illustrated in the 9th century A.D. in the Benedictine abbey of Saint Emmeram in Ratisbon (present-day Regensburg), Bavaria. The illustrator's tried to illustrate what was described in the letter. It isn't certain whether all were real instruments or allegories for Christian values (for instance a tuba is illustrated with three mouthpieces for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost to all blow through, and four exits (one for each of the

Four Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense ...

Four Evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

). The illustrations would be included and redrawn in other medieval and renaissance manuscripts. File:Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" and other Music Manuscripts, image 109.jpg, Circa 850-875 A.D., Benedictine Abbey of Saint Emmeran, Germany. Image 109 of Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" (Psalter of Emmeran. BSB shelfmark: Clm 14523) File:Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" and other Music Manuscripts, Image 110.jpg, Circa 850-875 A.D., Benedictine Abbey of Saint Emmeran, Germany. Image 110 of Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" (Psalter of Emmeran. BSB shelfmark: Clm 14523) File:Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" and other Music Manuscripts, Image 111.jpg, Circa 850-875 A.D., Benedictine Abbey of Saint Emmeran, Germany. Image 111 of Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" (Psalter of Emmeran. BSB shelfmark: Clm 14523) File:Benedictine Psalter, Angers, BM, 0018 (0014) folio 12v.jpg, Circa 842-850, Northern France. Benedictine Psalter or Angers Psalter, Angers, BM, 0018 (0014) folio 12v File:Benedictine Psalter - King playing a psalter.jpg, 842-850 A.D., Northern France. Benedictine Psalter or Angers Psalter, Angers, BM, 0018 (0014) folio 13r. File:Boulogne Psalter, Bibliotheque Municipale, 20, folio 2r.jpg, Circa 999 A.D. Odbert Psalter or Boulogne Psalter, Bibliotheque Municipale, 20, folio 2r. File:Boulogne Psalter, Bibliotheque Municipale, 20, folio 2v.jpg, Circa 999 A.D. Odbert Psalter or Boulogne Psalter, Bibliotheque Municipale, 20, folio 2v. File:Musical instruments from British Library, Add MS 47683, folio. 1v.jpg, 11-12th century A.D. Musical instruments from British Library, Add MS 47683, folio. 1v File:Tiberius Psalter f17r.png, 11th century A.D. Tiberius Psalter (Cotton manuscript of Tiberius C. vi), folio 17r File:Syntagma19.png, 1620 Germany. Left side shows illustrations from Michael Praetorius' ''Syntagma Musicum Theatrum Instrumentorum seu Sciagraphia'' From the text accompanying the pictures, the instruments may be grouped. Names may not precisely match known instruments; for example in the earlier medieval era, ''

cythara The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...

'' functioned as a generalized word for a stringed instrument (including the lyre, and possibly psaltery and lute). *Organum (''See:

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

'') *Fistula **bunibulum **bumbulum **altum lignum *Psalterium (''See:

Psaltery :''See Rotte (psaltery) for medieval harp psaltery & Ancient Greek harps for earlier psalterion'' A psaltery () (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and ...

'') **Psalterium decadordum *Tuba (''See:

Roman tuba The Roman (plural: ), or trumpet was a military signal instrument used by the ancient Roman military and in religious rituals. They would signal troop movements such as retreating, attacking, or charging, as well as when guards should mount, ...

'') **Forma Tubae **Fistule eree **Tuba Hieronimi *Tympanum **Tympanum Heronimi *Chorus (wind instrument like a tuba) **Cicuta aerea *Cithara (''See:

Cythara The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...

and

Cithara The kithara (), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching mus ...

'') **Cythara ut Hieronimus **Cythara secundum quosdam **Cythara ut Hieronimus **Alia cytera Hieronimi *Cymbalum (''See:

Cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

'') *Chorus (stringed instrument) *Tintinnabulum (bell)

Other bumbulums in history

Bagpipe or organ

The word ''bombulum'' was probably derived from the same root as the ''bombaulios'' () of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

(''

Acharnians ''The Acharnians'' or ''Acharnians'' (Ancient Greek: ''Akharneîs''; Attic: ) is the third play — and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays — by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BC on behalf of the young dram ...

'', 866), a comic compound for a bag-pipe with a play on an

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

that hums or buzzes. The original described in the letter, also from hearsay, was probably an early type of

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

Flatulists

The term was also used for

flatulist A flatulist, fartist, fartial artist, professional farter or simply farter is an entertainer often associated with flatulence-related humor, whose routine consists solely or primarily of passing gas in a creative, musical, or amusing manner. ...

s. According to a draft made by David Trotter for the ''Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources'', ''bumbulum'' may be named due to its sound resembling that of

flatulence Flatulence is the expulsion of gas from the Gastrointestinal tract, intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swal ...

: an event was recorded in 1250, about the king's court on Christmas Day in 1173. Trotter quoted a Latin extract from the ''Liber Feodorum'' or ''

Book of Fees The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs') which is a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, bu ...

'' in which the word was used; "Roland le Pettour had to perform the service of bumbulum to the king on Christmas Day in order to have the right to hold his land."

Animal noises

''Bumbul'' in ''bumbulum'' may also be related to the ''bumble'' in ''bumblebee'', for the buzzing sound, and to ''boom'' as in the noise which a

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' and various iterations of ''rared ...

can make.

References

{{Wiktionary, bumbulum Metal percussion instruments Medieval musical instruments Sacred musical instruments