Virginal (spinet) after Ioannes Ruckers c. 1600
Two types of virginal were built in the Ruckers workshops in Antwerp: The instruments with the keyboard on the left, called spinets, and the instruments with the keyboard on the right, called muselars. The position of the keyboard determines the location of the plucking point of the quills, and therefore the two types sound very different. Here we have the spinet type, which roughly reproduces the plucking proportions of a harpsichord.