Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Archicembalo" in English language version.
In the same rows [in] which one plays the perfect fifths, there will one find also the major thirds more perfectly tuned than those which we use.[translated]
It is often said that Nicola Vicentino divided the octave into 31 equal parts on his archicembalo and arciorgano. This is dubious. The claim is made in behalf of the first of the two tunings he prescribed for his archicembalo in 1555. It is true that the 31 division virtually matches 1/4-comma meantone temperament (the major thirds differing by less than a cent), and that Vicentino said that parts of his first tuning matched the normal practice of good masters. He also said, however, that some of the major thirds in his other tuning were 'more perfectly tuned than those which we use', and this is hardly compatible with a reading that would require the major thirds in the first tuning to have been virtually pure. The advocates of that reading have been obliged to say that, 'Part of Vicentino's system does not seem to make sense' and that his own microtonal compositions are full of mistakes. Vicentino's first tuning may nonetheless be considered an irregular variant of 1⁄4-comma meantone temperament, inasmuch as his 31 'dieses' (so he called them) had to average 1/31-octave and he said that, 'from every key [of the keyboard] no consonance is lacking'.[page needed]
