Comparative Organography in Early Modern Empires

Non-European musical instruments and their descriptions acted as transportable, material evidence of 'exotic' musics for early modern European scholars. As such, these objects and texts were literally instrumental in developing paradigms for the study of non-European musics. In this age of incipient globalization, they were also a contributing factor to the development of comparative ethnology. Drawing on a global range of reference, I assess critically a number of aspects emerging from early modern comparative organography, including diffusion, exchange, intercultural empathy, and adaptation, the use of European classical antiquity as a point of reference, and evidence of non-European reactions to European instruments.