I'm good in italian, much less in english, so my translation may be faulty as well; however, here is my try:

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so happens that, if you string an harpsichord with golden strings, and another harpsichord with brass strings the same length, thickness and tension, the pitch of the harpsichord stringed in gold will be about a fifth lower (than the harpsichord stringed in brass). This is because gold is nearly twice as heavy (than brass).

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Beware that "grave" in italian means both "low in pitch" and "heavy", hence the difficulty in translation.

(However, I didn't know about golden strings)

Regards,
Domenico



Il giorno 28/nov/2010, alle ore 17:15, Thomas Donahue <[log in to unmask]> ha scritto:

> I found a (faulty) translation for the following excerpt from Galileo's "Discorsi" of 1638, so I would be interested in another translation by someone else, if anyone wants to try it.
> 
> onde accade che incordandosi un cimbalo di corde d’oro ed un altro d’ottone, se saranno della medesima lunghezza, grossezza e tensione, per esser l’oro quasi il doppio più grave, riuscirà l’accordatura circa una quinta più grave.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Thomas Donahue
> 
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Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
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versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
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