Italian table spinet, 16th century, typical of the models used to accompany singing. The 45-note keyboard (Mi-Do) features mother-of-pearl plated treads and black painted feintes with traces of gilded motifs. The soundboard is made of several slabs of spruce, a rarity in those days (1) when cypress was the norm (the use of spruce tended to become more widespread only in the following century). The two-tiered rosette is in cut parchment. The sides of the case are made of cypress, as is customary, and the instrument itself is housed in a protective case typical of Italian craftsmanship. The keyboard flap, gilded on the inside, supports a folding lectern, decorated with the same motifs as those on the feintes. This lectern can be placed directly on the instrument, allowing the score and psalm to be read at the same time as it is played. The edge of the ribs and the capital are enriched with small turned bone cabochons, as was customary on Italian keyboards of the Renaissance. The gilded decoration painted on the throat and around the rim of the case depicts grape vines with exotic birds. A similar piece of work is described in the account book of the "Camora Ducalo Munigione e Fabrichi" dated October 14, 1536, which states that the workshop of Tommaso da Trevisio the Younger was asked to decorate a spinet for the nun Leonora d'Este. The decoration shows pheasants in gilded foliage... According to family tradition, this instrument was commissioned for Eleonora d'Este (1515-1575), daughter of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. She entered Holy Orders at the Corpus Domini convent in Ferrara, where she is buried alongside her mother Lucretia and other members of her family.(2) The interior painting on the lid, created around 1580, is typical of the Lombard school and depicts a female orante (Saint Catherine of Bologna?) surrounded by angel musicians playing instruments of the period: flute, cornet à bouquin, bass viol. The upper part of the painting displays the seven flames of the Meditations by Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) on the words of the Virgin Mary, considered as seven sacred flames. Bernardino de Siena was a preacher in Ferrara in 1417, during the plague epidemic. We can't help but relate these seven flames to the seven spiritual weapons against evil developed by St. Catherine of Bologna (c.1413-1463) for the training of novices at the Ferrara convent where Eleonora d'Este took her vows. Dimensions: 75.5 x 36 cm The instrument is in working order. Traces of restoration, in particular on the mother-of-pearl keys, the sapphires and the paint on the lid. (1)The narrowness of these spruce plates, with their limited number of fibers, has so far made it impossible to obtain relevant results from dendrochronology tests. It should be noted that this type of spruce, preserved inside its case, very rarely shows any damage to the top that might require replacement. (2)The quality of the workmanship indicates that this instrument was made for a member of a high-ranking family. The lid, covered in crimson velvet (heavily faded), features a ducal crown embroidered with gold thread and surmounted by the owner's cipher. However, research carried out at the Ferrara and Bologna libraries has failed to identify this embroidered cipher as that of Eleonora d'Este. Between 1626 and 1627, many items belonging to the Gonzaga family, then heavily in debt, were sold. The Flemish art dealer Daniel Nijs (or Nys) (1572-1647), resident in Venice, organized the sale of a large part of the Dukes of Mantua's collection as part of the largest art contract of the 17th century. His role in regularly supplying the Gonzagas with jewels and luxury items had opened the doors to the House of Este and made them aware that they might be interested in an offer to purchase his works of art, given the extent of their accumulated debts. The Chancellor of Mantua, Alessandro Striggio (1573-1630) (son of the composer), repeatedly negotiated the contents of the sale and the price of the objects, before Nijs finally completed the transaction by agreeing to pay Ferdinando Gonzaga's successor, Vincenzo II, for a substantial number of paintings, sculptures and objets d'art. The spinet then came into the possession of one of Mantua's ancient noble families, where it remained until the 20th century.