Instrument Classification

high and low instruments

Isidorean tri-partition

The classification of instruments in medieval culture rests on organological and symbolic principles and also takes into account the relative volume of different instruments. In order to show that a medieval classificatory theory may apply to a given image, it is necessary to classify the typology of the instruments in the image. A single instrument cannot prove a particular symbolic interpretation; it is the presence of several categories of instruments that give way to the indexation of a classification.