Musical history shows that the hurdy-gurdy and the bowed fiddle share the same origin. A common ancestor is probably to be found in the crwth of the Celtic bards. And since the Welsh crwth is a bowed version of the ancient plucked lyre, it may be considered as a link between the instrument of Apollo and the hurdy-gurdy. Thus, in his Dissertation historique sur la vielle (1741), Antoine Terrasson quite rightly states that the lyre of the Ancients gradually gave rise to the hurdy-gurdy – ‘la lyre des Ancients aura egalement produit par degrez la vielle (a roué)’. This may at first seem surprising, but it is baser on a serious analysis of the historical evolution of musical instruments.