The instruments of the Cantigas

The first collection of Cantigas only contained 100 hymns and there seems to be an awareness of the importance of each hundred even in this, larger, manuscript. Cantiga 100 features a solo musician, the first exception from the two-man rule, playing a fiddle in the unique Oriental style. Cantiga 200, likewise, shows a single figure playing a portative organ, one of the earliest depictions of that instrument. The last Cantiga, 400, has a tonsured monk playing a mechanical bell-chime box, another unusual instrument. On the other hand, Cantiga 300 shows a strange ensemble: a man and a woman (both Muslim by their sleeve patches) playing unique instruments. The man, wearing the noble box-cap birrete, blows a huge fingerhole horn, while the woman plays an hourglass-shaped drum. Since the organization of the illustrations is a little loose, it seems likely the previous picture (for number 290) was intended for this position. Cantiga 290 follows the pattern of striking solo performers in portraying a man, seated on a throne-like chair, playing the singular curved psaltery mentioned previously.

It is possible to see other patterns in the arrangement of pictures but it is not always certain whether they were intended or are merely part of our penchant for classification. Considering the still primarily oral minds who created these manuscripts I would err on the side of caution, but it is interesting to play the game.

Two thirds of the musicians are shown playing seated, but is this their normal position or because they are mostly shown in a courtly setting? Interestingly, the guitarra morisca players are usually shown standing (a more difficult position[?]) and only one pair is seated.

Why, in the first half which shows stringed instruments (with bells and cymbals thrown in at the end), did the limner show the triple clarinet players–right in the middle of a bunch of psaltery players? Some medieval pun or inside joke? Then, perhaps the punchline is the two Jewish harpers [not Jew’s harps] stuck back toward the end among the shawms and pipes and tabors.
Is there any significance to the illuminations which do not show the jewel-like coffered background? Cantigas 30, 60, 70, 80, 360, 370, 380, 390, and 400 all settle for musicians against a plain color. The last five could indicate haste in finishing the manuscript but the other four are at the beginning: were they not done in order?
The instruments clearly begin with the most common types: fiddles, guitarra latinas, lutes, and psalteries. But are the rest shown in order of popularity or prestige, or are they products of the preferences of the designer, the illuminator, or merely the multi-directional synapses of memory?