Pear-shaped fiddle, the strings of which are sounded by the rim of a rosined wooden wheel turned by a handle.
A row of keys is used to produce the melody by stopping one or two strings; the remaining strings sound a constant drone. A hurdy-gurdy-like instrument existed in Europe by the 12th century; it took its present shape in the 13th century. It has long been associated with street musicians, and it is still played as a folk instrument in Europe. The name is also often used for the barrel organ, in which a hand crank rotates a barrel inside the case, on which several tunes are encoded, causing a small pipe organ to play.
Hurdy-gurdy played by a French lady of fashion, 18th century
H. Roger-Viollet